Moonbrains 3: Into the Black
by Isis Magic
Summary: Set two years after the BDM, during the 2nd war for Independence. The third part of my Rayne series. Featuring a Browncoat Army, the Alliance, and 13 crazy teenagers. Comments are Always Appreciated! Enjoy!
1. Chapter 1

Moonbrains 3: Into the Black

Chapter One

He was back in the Heel, walking through a field. The grass was tall and wild flowers shot up and dotted the place in a random but beautiful design. The sky was blue, soft white clouds whispered overhead, not threatening rain, just merely floating by, enjoying the day themselves. The sun was shining, birds were chirping, and Jordan could hear a woman singing. It was an old song, about summer and flowers and mountains. And, yes, a little bit about falling in love. Jordan listened for a few more moments and took in the sweet smell of the flowers.

"Jordan!" the woman called, interrupting her song.

He saw her running towards him, her wild, brown hair flying behind her. There was a little girl running beside her, trying very hard to keep up. She looked just like her mother, like Jordan knew she would.

Cold water hit Jordan's face. "Come on back now, Cobb," an icy voice growled at him.

"Laura," Jordan said, fighting the returning pain. He just wanted to go back to Laura. And their child. What would they have called her? Jordan had always liked the name Emily.

"No one by that name here, boy," the icy voice said.

Pain had its full hold on Jordan Cobb now. He tried to breathe through it, but it radiated through every cell in his body. Slowly, Jordan began to remember where he was.

"Hey," he muttered to his torturer, "didn't I shoot you?"

"Yes, you sure as hellfire did, boy," Colonel Geming Smith growled above him. "And through my good knee, too." He glared down at him. "I _liked_ that knee, Cobb."

"Oops," Jordan muttered from his table. How long had he been here? He did remember getting jumped on the way back to his bunk. A black bag had been pulled over his head. There had been at least six guys. He hoped, anyway. It would have been a disgrace to be taken by less than six guys. At six guys, well, no one could blame you for losing the fight.

"You're not payin' attention to me, Cobb!" Smith yelled at him. "I want answers, and you're gonna give 'em to me or pay even more for my favorite knee!"

Jordan laughed. He couldn't help it. "And what do you think I know?"

"Where did that idiot brother of yers take my weapons?" Smith yelled.

"Oh," Jordan muttered. "That's what you think I know."

"That's right, Cobb, so start talkin'!" Smith yelled.

"You're in for a long wait, Colonel, because I don't know a gorram thing," Jordan said.

"You were in on his plan, Cobb," Smith said slowly, losing patience.

Really, Jordan couldn't blame him. Torture was only fun for about a minute. Then what you really wanted was answers. So you could kill the guy. And move on to the next one. Not that Jordan had military training in torture. No, his training had come from sweet old fashioned vengeance. Not something he was particularly proud of, actually.

"What makes you think I was in on anythin'?" Jordan asked, confused.

"You shot my knee off!" Smith screamed. Really, if that scream wasn't enough to frighten the devil, Jordan didn't know what could. Maybe he could make him mad enough that he would just finish the job. Being with Laura would be better than being here.

"You were gonna kill my brother," Jordan said calmly. "You're lucky I only shot you in the leg."

"You sayin' you were aimin' for my head?"

"I'm sayin' maybe I should have. As it turns out, it didn't exactly do me no favors, sparin' your sorry life."

"I'm sick of listening to this wretch. Hit him again!"

That's when the world got interesting. Jordan had been electrocuted before while working on a piece of farm equipment. Hit the wrong wire and found himself flying through the air. This was like a thousand wrong wires, hitting all over his body. He wondered slightly how he was doing it, delivering it so pointedly to every part of his body. Then he didn't wonder about anything.

"Toora, loora, loora. Toora, loora, li. Toora, loora, loora. Hush, now, don't you cry," Laura sang sweetly over their little girl's bed, rubbing her back. The moonlight seeped in through a window, and made her face glow like an angel's.

"Laura," Jordan whispered. She looked up, those glistening grey eyes met his, and she smiled.

This time, Jordan came back screaming. They were still shocking him, killing him as slowly as they could. And they called the Alliance dogs. "You bastards!" he yelled.

"Tell us where Serenity is headed, and all of this can stop, Cobb,"

Jordan answered in extremely eloquent Chinese.

"Again, McMannus. I suppose we have to hit 'im again," Smith said, almost sadly, gesturing to someone behind Jordan.

Jordan continued to mutter to himself in Chinese as the new shocks rocked his body. He had no control. He was sure he was about to die, to join Laura and his little girl forever. And he longed for it. It would mean they could all be happy and together at last.

"Sir!" a soldier had yelled it, but Jordan barely heard him. The shocks stopped. The soldier continued, "we've just learned something, Sir."

"Well! Can't you see I'm busy here? Out with it!" Smith yelled.

"It's Connor, Sir. Kyle Connor?"

"River Tam's idiot boy-toy," Smith muttered. "What of the big-mouthed fool?"

"Well, Sir," the solider said, faltering. "He says he knows where Serenity is headed."

Silence, deadly silence filled the room. "Where?" Smith asked softly.

"Haven, Sir. Connor's sure they're headed for Haven."

There was another moment of silence. Smith was thinking. It had to be very difficult for him.

"And you are certain, Private, that Kyle Connor can be trusted? Was he not loyal to Serenity?"

"Until recently, Sir, yes, he was very loyal to Serenity, but now – " the Private stopped.

"Continue, Private. What has changed?"

"Jayne Cobb and River Tam. They're, uh. Well, Sir, Connor's lookin' for a little revenge on the crew of Serenity, especially those two."

"Then I see he and I are on the same page," Smith paused. Then he seemed to remember the half-dead Cobb on his table. "McMannus, you may finish up here. We don't need Jordan Cobb anymore."

That didn't sound good.

The Colonel's footsteps echoed on the stone floor. Then the pain started again, and all of Jordan's senses shut down in response.

He lay in a large, soft bed, facing his wife, looking deeply into her grey eyes. There was still love in those eyes, even after these years of separation.

The mountain folk had forbidden their union, had come for her in the night, had left Jordan beaten, nearly dead. Even now, years later, Jordan didn't know what he had done wrong. He'd seen a girl, beautiful and kind, and had fallen in love with her. Why had that deserved so much pain?

It didn't matter now, though. Now there was no pain. Now they could be together, the way they had always wanted.

"Not yet, dearest," Laura whispered, stroking his face.

"What do you mean?" Jordan asked.

"You know what I mean," she sighed. "Not yet. You got a whole lot more livin' to do."

"But what about you?"

"I'll still be here when you come. Just you make gorram sure it ain't 'til you're old 'n' grey. Make no mistake, Jordan Cobb. You ain't done yet."

He was being slapped. Hard. Was McMannus going to slap him to death? Seemed that'd be an awful tedious way to kill someone.

"Jordan! Jordan!" a woman was yelling his name. And slapping him in the face. "Wake up!"

"You ain't Laura," he muttered weakly.

"Oh, thank God!"

"General?" he asked. "Did you come to kill me personally, then?"

"Not rightly sure I'm a General anymore, Cobb," Sonja Gellar said. "Let's get you out of here."

Jordan moaned in agreement as Sonja began detaching him from the table.

"Jesus Christ."

"Nope, he was on a cross," Jordan said. "I am on a table."

"Just, shut up, Jordan," Sonja said angrily, finishing her work.

"Hey, Sonja?"

"Yes, Jordan?"

"Just in case I die, thanks for trying," Jordan muttered.

"Oh, you ain't gonna die, Jordan Cobb."

"Am I not?" Jordan asked. Now he was being lifted.

"Hey, man, you look like shit," another voice said. The voice that belonged to the lifting arms.

"Sam?" Sam Long, a soldier, a spy, a Browncoat. Jordan was pretty sure he now loved Sam Long. "You are beautiful," Jordan told him.

"That's great," Sam replied. "Up you get," he said, sliding Jordan off the table.

This was not the best plan ever. Jordan couldn't stand. He would have fallen to the hard ground if Sonja hadn't appeared on his other side.

"Thanks," Jordan muttered.

"You know the old saying," Sonja said. She sounded kind of annoyed. Well, it wasn't Jordan's fault she'd decided to come save him.

"What old saying's that again?" Jordan asked weakly.

"When you can't run, you crawl, and when you can't do that – " Sam started

"You find someone to carry your sorry ass."

"Not exactly how I remember it, General," Sam muttered.

"Are you denying he is a sorry ass?"

"Not at all, General. Just desputin' the wordin' of the sayin'. Gotta be consistent. Canon. Dong ma?"

"Can I ask _where_ you're carryin' me?" Jordan asked. It didn't seem there were too many possibilities.

"Easy, Jordan. We're gonna carry your sorry ass straight back to your big brother," Sam said.

"Yeah, so you'll be his problem," Sonja added. "And, one more thing, Jordan."

"What's that?"

"No dying until we get there."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

"Once upon a time, in a 'verse far, far away, where no man had gone before, there lived a young princess, locked in a tower and beset by an evil league of monstrous goblins and two blue-clawed dragons. That is, until her brother the prince, with his magic staff, let loose the dogs of war and opened a can of kick-ass on the monsters, freeing the princess. They flew away on a magical ship, escaping the monsters and gaining a crew of new friends who would help them fight monsters across the 'verse. No power in the verse could stop them!"

"That's not true," Cancer piped up from her spot on the hold floor.

"Shush, kid, you're gonna miss the best part of the story," Jayne scolded.

"Better than monsters and dragons with blue claws?" Pisces asked, incredibly interested.

"There are no such things as dragons," Cancer said simply. "And I'm not a kid. I'm a teenager."

Jayne rolled his eyes. "You're still muckin' up the story," he said.

"What's the best part?" Pisces asked again. The kid was bouncing up and down a little, too excited to sit still.

"Me, of course," Jayne said.

"This story is not real," Cancer said, nose held high.

And they were back in the circle. It happened eventually whenever they tried to interact with the kids. It was like they ran out of responses and just got stuck in a loop. And Jayne never helped the situation any by, say, moving on. He got stuck in the loop right with them.

"It's just a story. 'Course it ain't real, in the strictest sense. It's supposed to be fun," Jayne said. "Ain't you ever heard a fairy story before?" Jayne asked.

"We're too old for fairy stories," Capricorn said from Pisces's other side. "Am I right, Cancer?"

"You are truthsome," Cancer said.

Figured. The one word Cancer had picked up from any of the crew would be from Mal.

"Well, good thing it ain't for you," Jayne muttered angrily.

"Who's it for?" Pisces asked.

"For the baby," Jayne said. He started playing with the recorder device, deciding to edit out all the students' interjections. He was having too much fun playing film director, River thought.

"Ohhh," Pisces said slowly. "What baby?"

Jayne sighed. "What baby do you think?"

"The one in the mechanic," Cancer stated calmly.

"Was I talkin' at you?"

"You were talking to the general assembly. Hence anyone in the general assembly has the right to answer. You don't like me, Jayne Cobb," Cancer said.

Jayne stared at her for a few moments. "Well, sure I like you. In my way."

Cancer raised an eyebrow. River stifled a laugh.

The Alliance default programming was very hard to change. Cancer would always be able to tell what was true and what wasn't. Pisces would have his curiosity. The Alphas would have their leadership qualities. The trick, River thought, was to stop the Alliance from being able to reach them anymore. If they could stop incoming contact, they could just ignore the fact that the students' personalities weren't their own. They could work with what they had. Maybe.

River put away her sketchbook, knowing the project was going to have to wait. They were making a fairy story book for Simon and Kaylee as a baby gift. River had wanted to knit a baby blanket, but the knitting needles had proven problematic. Then Jayne had hidden them. River could take a hint.

"So, what happened to the dragons?" Pisces asked, still bouncing.

"There are no such things as dragons," Cancer sing-songed. That was new. Maybe she was developing a sense of humor.

"We blew them up," Jayne said, smiling at Pisces. Jayne actually did like Pisces. He found him less annoying than Cancer and reminded him a little of Matty. River didn't have the heart to tell him Pisces's programming was still in development.

"Awesome!" Pisces said, returning the smile.

"All right, Cancer, Pisces, Capricorn! You're up!" Simon yelled from the catwalk.

Cancer got up right away. Capricorn stuck her tongue out at Simon but followed. Pisces looked from Jayne to Simon and back, not asking his question.

"Yes, buddy, you have to go with the Doc now."

"But why, Jayne?" Pisces asked.

"So he can make you better," Jayne said.

"Am I sick?" Pisces asked.

Jayne exchanged a glance with River. "You won't be," River said simply. Pisces was about to ask something else, but then seemed to think better of it. Or his program shorted. It was hard to tell with the kids.

Jayne watched the kids go up the stairs and disappear towards the infirmary. "You think Simon could make Cancer less annoying? Seems to me, she's been gettin' worse in that regard."

"Well," River said slowly, "You do sometimes bring out the annoying in people. So, maybe it's not the programming, sweetie. Maybe it's just you."

Jayne eyed her for a minute. How funny she was. Hah hah. See me laugh. River stuck out her tongue. Suddenly Jayne was thinking there were a lot better uses for her tongue than that. River laughed as Jayne came forward, caught her in his arms, and kissed her. River broke away and started running, laughing. Jayne apparently knew this game. He chased her right down to his bunk, where she let him catch her again.

"I've been wantin' to do this all mornin'," Jayne said, caressing River's face as he laid her on the bed.

"Just all morning?" River asked, smiling up at him. He answered by kissing her. His mind was a wonderful forest of fun ways they could spend the rest of the day. River liked all his ideas. She showed him her enthusiasm by wrapping her arms and legs tightly around him and meeting the intensity of his kisses.

River stopped thinking, stopped knowing, stopped everything but making love to him. There was no other place for this kind of exhilaration, followed by wonderful, glorious peace. The joy, the triumph, the pure excellence and brilliance of the 'verse, this was where she felt them best. Right here, with Jayne. And it wasn't like she had to be a mindreading moonbrain to understand these things. She knew, for once, she was feeling exactly what everyone else in this situation. This was the great leveler. Sex was heaven. That was the truth of it.

"I love you," she whispered in Jayne's ear. He kissed her neck in response. He was too busy for words just now, but he'd show her. Even though he said it now, too, River did still appreciate being shown. As often as Jayne wanted to. She smiled and closed her eyes, imaging they were floating out in space together, their bodies entwined as they drifted, unattached to anything but each other.

As they lay together after, Jayne's arms wrapped protectively around her, River allowed herself to think again. The subject she landed on was one she'd been thinking about a lot lately, mostly because of Kaylee and the baby growing inside her. Before Jayne, it had never occurred to River that she would want to have a child. She liked them just fine, the same way she liked ice planets. She did not have confidence that she'd be able to handle one on a daily basis. But now, lying in Jayne's arms, River once again found herself fantasizing about their future children. Beautiful little creatures with Jayne's eyes. Stunning blue. And River's brain. With amygdala.

Jayne wanted their children to look just like her. That was that. Little mini moonbrains running around the ship, dancing and laughing, stealing apples from each other. That's what he wanted.

Not that he'd admit that, but he did. He allowed himself to think it when he thought River wasn't paying much attention, when he thought she had other things to occupy her mind. Or when he thought she'd be too tired to delve too deeply into anyone's mind. Like now.

River was suddenly scared. Her heart started beating rapidly as a thought came to her. What if she couldn't have children? What if the Alliance had done something to her that would prevent her from conceiving? Or, worse, what if they found her after she had a child, turned her, forced her to hurt the mini moonbrain? How could she think of future offspring when such a possibility loomed before them?

With all the things River did know running through her head, it was awful, torture, really, to encounter something she didn't. Especially when it was about her own body and the hold the Alliance might still have on it.

River told herself not to think about it. But the thing everyone thought of when they were told not to think about purple elephants, was purple elephants. Totally wrong purple elephants.

"You all right?" Jayne asked.

River looked at him. His face was full of concern. He'd been looking at her, admiring her, until he noticed she looked disturbed, distracted. He didn't like it when she looked like that. It meant something bad was about to happen. Or did happen. Or was happening at that very moment halfway across the 'verse. There were countless possibilities when River looked like that. But none of them were good.

"I'm fine," River answered.

Jayne kissed her neck, lightly, thinking "Sure, sure, and I'm the king of England."

River laughed.

"This funny to you?" Jayne asked, kissing her again.

And just like that, River could stop thinking again. For a second, anyway.

That's when it hit her. The electricity. No, the memory of electricity, and now a fever. So hot. His heart beating too fast, his mind full of a beautiful woman with grey eyes and a child that had never been. He was so close now, surrounded by people River had met but had apparently never known. Flying toward them on a ship made to feel like hers. A ship that, by rights, shouldn't have been flying at all. It should still have been in the base under Khonsu City.

Holy hell and gorram it all, the Browncoats were here!

She jumped up from the bed and almost forgot to put on clothes. Good thing Jayne had been thinking how sweet her naked body looked or she'd have run up to the bridge.

"What's going on now?" Jayne asked. He'd thought there was more sex. He liked more sex. More sex was the best.

River muttered to herself in Chinese as she realized she was trying to put her dress on backwards.

"Seems like a losing battle there, Moonbrain," Jayne muttered. "Hell, leave it off and come back to bed."

"Can't." Jayne waited for further explanation. "Jordan," River said, nearly flying up the ladder.

"What?" Jayne yelled up after her. She hoped he remembered to put on pants.

"Jordan!" River yelled over her shoulder as she ran for the bridge. "Captain!" she said as she slid to a stop beside him.

Mal was talking to someone on the monitor. "Now, the way I remember it, the last we saw of any of you, you were trying to put bullets in us. How do I know this isn't a way to finish that job?"

"Mal, you think I would really risk my ass in this bucket of barely space worthy junk yard Frankenstein pieces just to come and kill you?"

General Sonja Gellar.

River's head started spinning. Why hadn't she seen this coming? She should have seen this coming.

"Well, people have traveled farther to kill me," Mal muttered. He didn't believe it. Sonja was making a good point.

"She's telling the truth," River said.

"Glad you could finally join the conversation, River," Mal said. He'd expected her sooner.

"I had to put a dress on," River muttered.

Mal hadn't needed to know that. Serves him right, acting all Captainy.

"All right, that's it. We're docking, dong ma? I don't have time for this horse shit," Sonja said, angry. But also, scared. The screen went black.

"Hey!" Mal yelled.

River reached over him and started the docking protocols from their end. Mal was distracted by his confusion.

"What the hell was that?" Mal asked.

There was a rumbling as the other ship attached.

River pushed the intercom, "Simon! We're gonna need you in the hold."

"You givin' orders on my ship?" Mal asked.

"What the hell did you mean by yelling Jordan and running out of the room?" Jayne asked, finally arriving on the bridge.

"Oh, this might be a conversation I don't need to hear," Mal muttered under his breath.

River decided to ignore the Captain. He was apparently in a mood. Instead she answered, "I meant, dear, that Jordan's on the ship that just attached to us." Jayne still looked confused. "He's here, Jayne."

"Wha – "

"And soon, they'll all be here," River whispered, realizing how much worse this was about to get.


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

"Wait just a gorram minute," Mal said, holding up a hand. "What the hell do you mean by 'all'? Who is all?"

"One thing at a time, Captain," River said, pushing past Jayne and heading out.

"Where you think you're going, Albatross? We're talkin' here!" Mal yelled after her, following.

Jayne stood in the doorway for a minute, frowning.

"You comin' Jayne?" Mal called over his shoulder. He followed River, wishing she would turn around and further explain what was happening on his ship. Why didn't he ever know what was happening on his ship? Wasn't he the Captain?

River led them straight to the infirmary, where Mal began to understand why River wasn't concerned with the 'all' she talked about. The 'all' who would soon be here. "What the hell happened to him?" Mal asked, looking at Simon's new patient, lying on the cot, looking about three-quarters dead.

"Carlos McMannus," Sonja Gellar said, coming up behind him.

"Where is he?" Jayne growled. Mal could almost see him planning his revenge.

"Back on Khonsu," Sonja said, waving Jayne off. "We hope, anyway," she said.

"He must be a friend of Smith's?" Mal asked.

Sonja shrugged. "He's a fan of money. And causing pain."

"With hobbies like that, who needs friends?" Mal asked. To Simon, he called, "Doc, what's the word? He gonna be all right?"

Simon looked up for a moment. He'd been examining Jordan's chest, going back and forth from his machines to his patient. The doc saw Jayne standing behind Mal, then quickly got back to work, ignoring Mal's question altogether. That did not exactly instill warm and fuzzy feeling in Mal's heart.

"He's got an infection," River said, her voice a little shaky. "He's very far away, but very close. Keeps telling him 'not yet.'"

Jayne finally entered the infirmary to stand beside River, putting an arm around her shoulders.

River looked up at him, "He's fighting, Jayne. He's gonna keep fighting."

"Cobbs are good at that," Jayne muttered, looking down at his little brother.

Simon looked around the room, which was growing pretty crowded, and shook his head. "I need you all to leave."

"You'll need help, Simon," River said, still starring at Jordan.

"River, I, uh – " Simon faltered. He looked from River to Jordan, to Mal.

River was losing it. She was too close to this one. It happened to everyone. She glared at him, but didn't say anything. Mal figured she knew he was right. It had to happen sometimes. He didn't get to be Captain by being wrong _all_ the time.

"I'll get Inara," Mal volunteered. "She's good with this stuff."

Not like the rest of them, who were warriors. While they'd been all fighting, putting bullets in people, Inara had been helping Simon take them out. From companion to nurse. Mal thought it was a step in the right direction, though he'd been smart enough not to say that bit out loud.

"She's in her shuttle," River stated.

Mal nodded his thanks and bolted.

"'Nara!" Mal called, running down the corridor. "'Nara we need your help," he said, barging into the shuttle. "Oh," he muttered, realizing what Inara was doing. Which was bathing. In the middle of her shuttle. Now, this was something River could have mentioned.

"Mal!" Inara shrieked, grabbing for her robe.

"Didn't figure you for the modest type," Mal muttered, studying the ceiling.

"Won't you ever learn to knock?"

"Well, you don't pay rent anymore, so – "

"_What_ are you doing here?" Inara asked, turning to face him, silk robe now secured. Mal tried not to notice how it clung to her body. Tried. But failed.

"Simon needs some help with one of our new guests," Mal said pointing behind him.

"What new guests?"

"Sonja Gellar and Jordan Cobb. And whoever else hitched a ride with them out of Khonsu. Haven't had time for a friendly chat yet, seeing as how Jayne's little brother is busy tryin' to die. Simon needs help thwarting him." Mal turned to leave.

"Is that all you have to say to me?" Inara asked. Mal wondered what else there was to say, what with the man dying on his ship and all. "We've barely spoken since – "

"Well, now ain't exactly the opportune time to remedy that," Mal huffed, turning around.

"But you told me you – "

"I remember what I said," Mal muttered softly, putting up his hand. It just wasn't the time. Maybe it would never be the time, but now, hell no. He was not doing this now. Mal shook his head, wishing, for about the millionth time, he'd never said a word to Inara. Yeah, he had been pretty sure at the time that things were about to go really, really wrong, and he had wanted to tell her the truth before he died. Or before she died. Or before they all died in a fiery mess. But now that they had survived the suicide mission, Mal was rethinking his confession.

"And then you didn't _do_ anything!" Inara said angrily.

Mal shook his head. "Like I said, Inara. Simon needs help. So, will you please just get your gorram clothes back on and haul your ass to the infirmary?" Mal turned quickly before Inara could fight with him some more.

When he got back to the hall outside the infirmary, there were a few more new guests gathering around.

"Is he gonna be all right?" Kuan-Yin was asking, standing on her tip-toes, trying to see what the doctor was doing to Jordan.

There were also a man and a woman, roughly River's age, standing back, looking worried. Mal thought they looked vaguely familiar, but he couldn't place their names. The man had his arm around the girl, who looked like she had been crying.

"Captain, please get these people out of here!" Simon yelled as he shot Jordan with some medicine.

"Y'all heard the doc, let's go," Mal said, gesturing for the crowd to move along. They started dispersing, slowly.

"And where is Inara?" Simon asked.

"I'm right here, Doctor," she said, sweeping past Mal without giving him a glance. "What do you need?"

As Sonja Gellar started past him, Mal put out his hand and stopped her. "We need to talk. Kitchen. Now."

The General didn't put up a fight. She nodded once and followed him.

Mal waited until the rest of her crew had also joined them in the kitchen. "First off, who are you two?" he asked, looking at the couple.

"I'm Sam. This is Meg. We're, uh, friends," the man said.

"Sam helped me get Jordan out," Sonja said.

"Then we decided Khonsu wasn't the place for us after all," Meg said.

"Out of where? Exactly?" Mal asked.

"Hell, mostly," Sam muttered.

River and Jayne entered the kitchen. Jayne looked pale. The look didn't suite him.

"Doc says he was electrocuted," Jayne said. "Tortured," he looked at Sonja Gellar. "That true?"

"Smith is a bastard," Sonja Gellar said simply. "I'm sorry, Jayne."

"Mal, why are they on the ship?" Jayne asked angrily.

"Now, honey, remember they did bring Jordan to us."

"Fat lot of good that did him. You saw him, River. You think he's gonna survive this?" Jayne asked.

River looked back towards the infirmary, looking worried and confused. Mal didn't figure she knew. She looked at the Captain. Mal figured that meant he was right about that.

"Mal, why is General Gellar, leader of the Browncoat Underground, the people we're running from – "

"Not the only people we're running from," River muttered.

" – on the ship?" Jayne asked, ignoring River.

"Good question," Mal said. "Well?" he asked Sonja Gellar.

Sonja Gellar looked at the floor for a moment before looking Mal in the eye. "It finally occurred to me, when Smith took Jordan, that maybe I wasn't on the right side anymore."

Jayne laughed. River fell silent. Mal was confused.

"That's it? Had a change of heart?" Mal asked.

Sonja shrugged. "Believe me or not. I didn't bring Smith. I brought Jordan."

"And how did you find us, again? I never did hear that one," Mal said.

"Oh, that was me, sorry!" Kuan-Yin said from her spot on the far side of the kitchen. Mal had almost forgotten about her. "I, may, uh, have been tracking you," she said sheepishly. "But it's disabled now! Don't worry!"

"More than disabled," Meg said. Meg was her name, right? "We've scrambled up the signals real good. Should look like it's coming from the other side of the verse."

"Where some Alliance ships happen to be patrolling," Sam added.

"Smith knows about this?" Mal asked.

"No, actually," Sonja Gellar said. "But he will once he searches my office."

"Doesn't matter," River stated. "They know we're heading for Haven. Eventually we always make it to Haven."

"There is that," Sam said, nodding.

"So, I guess we're not going to Haven then," Jayne said.

"We ain't going nowhere very fast with the Franken-Fly attached," Meg stated.

Kuan-Yin crossed her arms and glared at Meg. "I told you not to call her that! Her name is Phoenix."

"And I told you her real name is Franken-Fly," Meg snapped back.

"Oh, not again," Sam muttered.

"What the hell are they talking about?" Mal asked.

"Kuan-Yin's ship. The shell we saw in Khonsu. That's what's attached to us," River told him.

"You actually got that thing off the ground?" Mal asked, eyes snapping back to Kuan-Yin.

"Barely," Meg sang.

Kuan-Yin responded in harsh Chinese.

"All right, all right," Mal said before Kuan-Yin could launch herself across the table at Meg. "We've got the how. We've got a why. So, what do you expect us to do next, General Gellar?"

"I hadn't quite figured that part out yet," Sonja Gellar admitted.

"Why am I not surprised? Just jump on the first wreck you see, burn atmo, and then nothing," Mal said.

"No, not nothing, Captain," Sonja said.

"Come again?" Mal asked.

"Well, see, Captain, then I relinquish command over to you," Sonja answered.

"What?" Jayne asked.

"I'm at your mercy, Captain Reynolds. My crew is at your mercy. Phoenix can't fly on her own for very long. I think we dang near shot her for good just gettin' here. We might be able to piggy back for a while, maybe get somewhere's where we can hide a little better. Push comes to shove, Phoenix would make a pretty fine decoy. But it's up to you, Captain. Throw us all out if you want to."

The kitchen was silent for a moment. Mal glared at Sonja Gellar. At least her crew had the decency to look a little worried. The General of the Browncoat Underground looked like they were talking about the weather instead of sending four people to certain death. She wasn't worried. She knew what Mal was going to do.

"It's 'cause you're good, Captain," River stated calmly.

"I am not. I don't know why people keep saying that," Mal answered her. Phoenix's crew exchanged glances. Now at least Sonja looked a little uncomfortable.

"Because you keep takin' in strays," River muttered.

"Hell, that don't make me good. That just makes me a gorram idiot," Mal said.

"Just remember, Mal, you said it this time, not me," Jayne said, crossing his arms.

"This means we get to stay, right?" Kuan-Yin asked.

"Yes," Mal said slowly. "You can gorram stay." He pointed at Sonja. "But don't you ever forget I'm Captain here, _dong ma_?"

"I don't think you're going to be lettin' me," Sonja said, giving Mal a tiny smile. It looked weird. Mal wished she would stop.

There was nothing to smile about. One Cobb looking like he was gonna pass out, the other one three-quarters dead. A pregnant mechanic. A pissed off former companion. Thirteen kids with a great terrifying mixture of Alliance programming and personality disorders. And one Franken-Fly. Was that all?

"You forgot the two armies coming after us because they know where we're going," River said.

"Then we best not head there," Mal stated simply.

Where was he gonna hide two ships and twenty-five people? Somewhere they would see anyone and everyone coming. Somewhere close enough to Haven, but not too close. Possibly somewhere that could really screw with a ship's sensors. Mal figured he knew just the spot. If nothing had happened to it yet. He looked at River.

"How the hell should I know if anything happened to it?" she asked him. "Last we saw it, Captain, it was crawling with Alliance."

"Yeah, but they were about to leave," Mal reasoned.

"Oh, hell, no," Jayne said, apparently catching up.

"Last we saw it, Captain, its owner had just died. And his next of kin was a robot," River said slowly, as if she were talking to a small child.

"Maybe it blew up," Jayne mumbled. "That'd be good. That cloud 'round it got to be dangerous."

"Captain, while I do trust your Captaininess," Sam babbled, "I'm just wonderin', where the hell are you fixin' to go?"

"Ion," Mal answered. "We're gonna go hide out on Ion."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

Ion was an oddity of galactic proportions. The terraforming on the planet had gone incredibly well. It was a perfect planet, though smaller and far out in the black, close to nothing. It had only been terraformed because some members of Parliament had thought it would make a prime vacation destination. The planet was secluded, and by then the crews believed they had taken terraforming to a new level. It turned out to be the level of incredibly dangerous ion clouds, through which only the best pilots in the verse could navigate. The best or the craziest.

Apparently, River Tam was one of these pilots. River Tam was also one of the best dancers and one of the best warriors. Whatever she tried, she would become one of the best.

It did not matter, however, that River Tam was one of the best pilots anywhere. That, logically, everything would be fine. That records indicated that River had actually flown through this ion cloud at least once before. These things did not matter, but they should have. They should have been the only things that mattered. But they weren't. It was highly illogical, but Libra, despite these reasons she should not be, was afraid.

She clutched the armrests of her seat, knowing they were passing through the cloud. There was some turbulence, but hardly enough to make anyone nervous. It was not the crashing and burning turbulence. Libra knew this. It was more akin to a minor storm. She tightened her seatbelt and closed her eyes anyway.

The turbulence suddenly quieted. Libra opened her eyes to find Taurus staring at her. She straightened and looked him in the eye. "Everything is fine," she stated. "Do not worry."

Taurus looked momentarily confused. "I do not worry," he stated. He continued to watch her as River Tam took the Firefly down.

The other ship, the crippled one, the one the crew of Serenity had started calling Frank, was making its own descent. Libra was relieved she was on the fully functional ship. She expected the other crew would be dead in a fiery mass when they finally reached the surface.

The actual gravity kicked in. Libra's stomach did a flip. A minute later, they had hit the ground, softly. Suddenly all Libra wanted to do was get off the ship. She jumped up, forgetting she was wearing a seatbelt, and was slammed back down again.

Taurus raised an eyebrow. "You are not well," he said.

Libra rolled her eyes. "I am fine. I only wish to be off this ship."

"This ship is not safe," Taurus said distractedly, looking around. "By all logic, it should not be flying."

"A proper mechanic can keep anything flying," Libra muttered, fighting with her seatbelt, which, of course, was stuck.

The mountainous man came through the hall and into the room. "Y'all a'ight?" he asked.

Libra wondered where he had learned English. She shook the seatbelt. "We are well," she said.

The man stomped over to her, took out his knife, and sliced the seatbelt off of her. Libra stared at the knife as he put it back in his belt. "There," he said. "All better."

Libra slowly rose from the seat, keeping her eyes on his, and slipped past him. Once out, she ran to the hold, where the Captain was opening the door.

Fresh air hit her, and Libra stopped. In the middle of the hold. They'd found a field. She couldn't remember ever seeing anything so green. The sky looked a little funny. Blue, but wobbly, like it was moving. Of course the atmosphere of every planet moves, but this atmosphere had an ion cloud stuck to its outer edges. And she could still see it. And suddenly, Libra wanted to crawl back into the bunk the Captain had so reluctantly given her.

"Why don't you step outside? Have a look for yerself?" the Captain asked.

Libra shook her head just slightly, studying the sky from her spot in the hold. She felt cold. And more than cold. Alone. It was strange how that word popped into her mind. She was certainly not alone. But she felt like she had been cut off from something, somehow. Like this was wrong.

An ion spark, much like lightning, only much, much higher, flew across the sky.

Very, very wrong.

Libra straightened, looked at the Captain, then turned and walked back inside. She went to the kitchen and sat down, putting her hands on the table. And here she waited. And thought.

"We're on a new planet," Pisces said, calmly, as he entered the kitchen and began starring at Libra.

"Yes," Libra said. "We are. You are very clever."

"It's shiny out there."

"Is it?" Libra asked, raising an eyebrow.

Pisces nodded and blinked his young, blue eyes at her. His blond hair was growing out. It was too long. It made him look like a scraggly puppy. Highly disturbing. Libra hated puppies.

"Are you staying in here because of the man in the bed?"

"The who in the what?" Libra asked.

"The man. Who was hurt. Is he going to die?" Pisces asked.

Jordan Cobb. Electro-boarded and who knows what else. Half dead, last time Libra checked.

"Would that bother you?" Libra asked.

"I suppose it shouldn't," Pisces said thoughtfully. "I don't know him." Pisces paused a moment. Libra supposed he was thinking, but she sometimes questioned Pisces ability for intelligent thought. Maybe he had seen a fly. "But I think it would be a terrible way to die," he said, finally. "From torture. Isn't that a terrible way to die, Libra?" he asked.

"Do you think there are good ways to die?" Libra asked in return.

"Sure," Pisces said. "Everyone has to die, eventually. I think the best way to die is when you're very, very old. And in your sleep. And sudden-like, so you can't see it coming."

Libra raised an eyebrow. Had he been obsessing about the best way to die? What was wrong with this kid? Moonbrain. "Jordan Cobb might get a third of that right. He might never wake up."

"I wasn't finished talkin' about the good ways to die," Pisces said, shaking his head at her. The hair flew in and out of his face. It was sickeningly adorable.

"Pray, continue," Libra said, rolling her eyes.

"The second best way to die would be for someone else. Like if you're saving someone. 'Cause, if there's a heaven, which Dr. Tam says there is, then you'd sure get there by saving someone else. Unless they're bad, I guess," Pisces stopped. Maybe he had forgotten where he had been going with the conversation. It sometimes happened with him. "And the third good way to die, I think, is to die for something you believe in. Like in a war. All the soldiers think they are fighting for the good side, the right side. And because they believe that, they really don't mind dying for it."

"I'm sure they mind, Pisces," Libra muttered.

"Well, yeah," Pisces said. "But they don't mind half so much as they would if they had been murdered."

"Well, Jordan Cobb does not have to worry about that for a while," Cancer said from the doorway. "Simon Tam is an excellent doctor. Jordan Cobb is awake. Jordan Cobb will live."

"There, Pisces," Libra said. "Your friend will live to die a good death another day."

Pisces did not look relieved. He looked confused. "I thought you would be relieved," he said. "You were sitting here worrying about him. Now you act like him living is of no consequence to you."

"Because it is not. I was not worrying about him."

"Yes, you were!" Pisces said angrily.

"I was not," Libra repeated, sternly.

Pisces pouted for a moment. "If you're not worried about him, why are you sitting alone in here looking worried?" he asked.

"I am not worried about Jordan Cobb," Libra said through clenched teeth. "I am not worried about anything," she said, looking right into Cancer's green eyes.

Cancer shrugged.

Pisces looked very confused. It made him look even more like a puppy. Disgusting.

"What now?" Libra snapped at him.

"Why aren't you excited about the new planet?" he asked. "It's our very first new planet! Don't you want to see it?"

"No," Libra said. "And I don't want you setting foot on that rock, either."

Pisces looked hurt, "But everyone else is going! Just to have a look around! Please?"

"No. Not us," Libra said, shaking her head. "We're not going anywhere. Pass it on. We're staying on this ship."

"But – "

"What did I say, Pisces?"

"No."

"And what does that mean, Pisces?"

"It means we're staying on the gorram ship," Pisces muttered.

"That's correct," Libra said. She sighed. "Now get out of here. Leave me alone." She waved her hand, shooing them both away.

A minute later she was back to enjoying the peace and quiet of the deserted kitchen. She liked this part of the ship. When it was all quiet like this, Libra could close her eyes and hear the ship running. It was calming, like listening to someone's heartbeat. Except right now. Because the heartbeat suddenly stopped. They had shut down the engine, landed, decided to stay awhile.

Fantastic.

Libra suddenly felt like throwing up. The Captain would not want them to stay on the ship alone. They were going to hide here. And if the crew left the ship, Libra and hers would have to leave as well. Libra would have to see that sky and walk onn that rock and not know why, surrounded by gorram people, she felt alone, cut off, like she needed to reach out to someone. Tell someone where she was and to come and get her. Now. So they could go home. All of them. But a message couldn't get through the ion cloud. No one was coming to take her home. She really was alone.

"We are better here," Taurus said.

Libra jumped. Only Taurus could sneak up on her. "No, we are not," she stated, not even turning to face him.

"You are not well," he said, coming further into the kitchen.

"I am fine."

"You can lie to Cancer, but not to me."

"Why not?"

Taurus looked confused and took a moment to answer. "I do not know," he said. "But I can tell. Something is wrong. You do not trust these people, I think."

"What is there to trust?" Libra asked.

"I believe they are trying to help us. I believe we can trust the crew of Serenity, Libra," Taurus said.

"And I believe we cannot," Libra stated, meeting his eyes for the first time. "I know we can only trust ourselves."


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

"What do you mean, you aren't leaving the ship?" Simon asked the group of teenagers surrounding the kitchen table.

"Libra says we are not to leave the ship," Gem began.

"So we are not to leave the ship," Eye finished.

Simon sighed. Why hadn't he figured out this programming yet? He looked over at River. She shrugged. "So, that's it then? You always do what Libra tells you?"

"Pretty much," Sagittarius said, nodding. The slender blonde had her bare feet on the table and was busying herself painting her toenails pink.

Simon didn't get it.

"She's the oldest," Leo said. "She's always been in charge. Ever since before I can remember."

Which was saying something. Leo had a photographic memory. From the moment he had been programmed by the Alliance until right now. He remembered every detail.

"Besides," Aquarius said, "It smells funny out there, and the sky hurts my eyes."

"That's just the ion cloud," Simon said. "You'd get used to it."

Aquarius shook his head. "Don't wanna get used to it. Want to stay on the ship."

Sagittarius nodded, wiggling her toes.

"You all feel this way? Scorpio?" Simon asked.

The scrawny redhead flinched at the sound of his name. "What?" he asked, quickly sliding his latest project into his lap and trying to look like he hadn't been doing anything.

Simon sighed. "Don't you want to go explore Mr. Universe's lab? I'm sure there are some interesting pieces of equipment out there. You won't find anything like that on Serenity."

Scorpio seemed to contemplate this for a moment. Then Virgo slapped him on the arm. Scorpio looked around the table at his classmates. Simon could almost see the peer pressure working its magic. "No, I'm good," Scorpio said after a few moments. "I should stay here and finish this." He held up his project, apparently forgetting that it had been a secret about five seconds before.

Simon had no idea what it was. It just looked like a mess of wires and metal.

"What is that?" Sagittarius asked, wrinkling up her nose.

Scorpio's face started to turn red. "It's just a gadget I've been working on." He glanced quickly at Simon and River, then went back to studying the kitchen table.

Simon looked at River. River looked worried.

"But what does it do?" Simon asked.

"It's going to get an ordinary wave through the ion cloud," Scorpio said.

"Mr. Universe could send waves," Simon said.

"He had the equipment," River said. "To get through the ion cloud."

"He had the equipment?" Scorpio asked, straightening up. "He had the equipment here on Ion?"

"Well, yeah. He had to communicate."

"Wait, is this where the Miranda Wave came from?" Sagittarius asked, putting down her nail polish.

"Yes," River said slowly.

"Freakin' awesome!" Sagittarius said gleefully, putting her legs down. "We have to go see where the Miranda Wave was sent from!" she cried as she started to bounce in her seat. "I'm sure Libra didn't know where we were, really. If she did, she would totally think we should go check it out."

"Maybe we should - "

" - go ask Libra," the twins said uncertainly.

"No," Sagittarius whined. "She'll just say no!"

"This is true," Leo said. "She's said no the last fifty times we've asked her. Stands to reason she'd say no this time."

"Well, I'm not going," Aquarius said.

"Libra's going to kick your asses if you set foot on that rock," Virgo said. "And I'll help her, too. She's the oldest. She's in charge."

"Well, technically," Sagittarius said slowly, "River Tam is the oldest. Therefore, River Tam is in charge."

"River Tam is not one of us," Virgo said.

"Yeah, she is. Remember? She was a student in an Alliance Academy, the same as us." Leo. Simon thought. He was starting to get confused, they were talking very fast.

"Not the same Alliance Academy," Virgo said.

Simon didn't know if he should step in or not. River shook her head.

"I think we should vote!" Sagittarius yelled.

"We do not vote!" Virgo yelled back.

"Maybe we do now!" Sagittarius countered. "In case y'all haven't noticed, things are a might different here!" She opened her arms and gestured around the kitchen. "Does this look like we're in the gorram Tower of Khonsu anymore? Anyone?"

The twins shook their heads. The other students avoided her eyes. Except for Virgo, who was glaring at her.

"I say we go check this place out," Sagittarius said. "I say we go find Mr. Universe's equipment. Think of how much work that will save you, Scorpio."

Scorpio nodded. "I'm in," he said.

"Us too!" the twins said together.

"I guess I'll go," Leo said when everyone looked at him. "It'll be an interesting planet, anyway. Something different."

"Yeah, well, I'm staying right here," Aquarius said, slumping in his chair.

"I am staying as well," Virgo said, her voice turning rough. "And I'm going to tell Libra just what happened here."

Simon had no doubt that she would, but he decided he didn't care. He led the others off the ship and set them loose in Mr. Universe's lab. Scorpio was in heaven, gathering up equipment in his arms. Then he'd see something else he liked and drop everything, literally, to investigate.

"Hey, Doc. Glad to see you're off the ship. Hosting a field trip?" Mal asked, coming up beside him.

Simon nodded, "Something like that."

"Figure we'll stay here for a while. Maybe a week. Maybe more. Foresee any reasons why we shouldn't?"

"Like what?" Simon asked.

Mal nodded to Scorpio, "Just for starters, I think if we gave that kid a week, he could destroy a planet."

"Or get a message to the Alliance," Simon added.

"Wait, what?" Mal asked.

Oops. Maybe Simon shouldn't have said anything. "I think it's the reason Scorpio agreed to come here. That's the problem he was trying to solve this morning, getting a message through the ion cloud."

"Didn't think that was an issue," Mal muttered. "And you think he wants to send a message to the Alliance?"

"I think Libra wants to send a message to the Alliance."

"I knew I didn't like her," Mal commented.

"It's the programming," Simon defended. "They made her very loyal." And very smart.  
>And very deceptive. And very strong.<p>

"And I thought you were going to fix all that," Mal said angrily.

"It's not that easy," Simon said, shaking his head. "I told you, the Alliance erased everything. All that the kids have is the base code that the Alliance stuck in their heads. I might be able to replace that with something else one day, but so far, it's nowhere near as detailed as their programs. And I can't delete the Alliance programs without something to replace it that is just as good or they'll just be empty shells."

"Some of them seem that way already," Mal muttered.

"The programs were very well developed, better than what I can come up with. You want me to erase everything in their heads? What should I make them then, Mal? Should I make them like you? Like me? Who are they, really, though? How do I make a program that allows them to become independent and grow? The answer is I don't. I can't. They were better than me, Mal. They figured out how the human brain works and reprogrammed it from scratch as if it were a computer. I can't do that."

"That sounds like your problem, Doc," Mal said, holding up a hand. "Just find the gorram answer! And do it before Libra gets us all killed." With that, the Captain stormed off down the hall.

"He just wants things to go back the way they were," Zoe said, coming up behind him. "You know, when we were fighting alongside the Browncoats and we were facing the Alliance on a battlefield and not out here in the black. Where our ship still doesn't have any guns."

Simon nodded.

Zoe patted his shoulder. "It'll be right, Doc. We'll get clear," she said. "We always do."

"Yeah," Simon muttered. The crew of Serenity would get clear. But Simon really very much doubted that the kids would. There was no getting clear of this. On the battlefield or out in the black or safe on Haven, the kids would always have only what the Alliance had given them. Nothing else.

Later that afternoon, Simon headed for the infirmary to check on his patient. Jordan was out of danger, but he still had a ways to go before he was completely recovered.

"You shouldn't have tried to come to our rescue," a woman's voice said.

Simon stopped short in the hall outside the infirmary.

"And what the hell was I supposed to do, let Smith kill my big brother?" Jordan asked.

Simon took a few more steps and saw that Zoe was sitting on the edge of Jordan's bed.

"Maybe," Zoe said. "Look where being a hero got you."

Jordan took her hand. "Yeah," he said, "look where it got me."

Simon backed away slowly, deciding to check on Jordan later. As he backed up, though, he ran right into Jayne.

"Hey, Doc. How's my half dead brother?"

"Think he's only an eighth dead now, Jayne."

"That's good," Jayne said. "Right in time for something else bad to happen."

Simon nodded. "If we can hold off on getting into more trouble for a couple weeks, that'd be good."

"Like that's gonna happen," Jayne said gruffly.

"Yeah, I thought you'd say that."

"And River don't think it's gonna happen, neither," Jayne said just as Simon was stepping around him.

"What does she think is going to happen?"

"The same thing we all know is going to happen, eventually," Jayne said. "One or both those gorram armies after us is going to catch up to us. And then what?"

"Then I guess we run," Simon said.

"Yeah, further into the black. 'Til there ain't no more black to run to," Jayne commented. He nodded towards the infirmary, "Gonna go give my eighth-dead brother a hard time. Nice talk, Doc."

"Yeah," Simon muttered. Real good talk. "It's always so cheery talking to you," he muttered, walking away.

Simon found Kaylee gathering her tools in the engine room. "Where are you off to?" he asked.

"Kuan-Yin thinks she can get the Franken-Fly off this rock again," Kaylee said, examining a piece of ... something ... that she'd found amongst her tools. "If I help her, that is," she added, throwing the scrap into the corner.

"They barely got it down safely," Simon said. "What makes her think she could possibly get it to break atmo again?"

"Because, she got it off Khonsu when everyone said she couldn't. And that was by herself. Now she's got me helping her." Kaylee smiled. "I really think we can do this," she said.

"Well, if she's got you, then her chances of succeeding have greatly increased."

"And all of Mr. Univserse's old stuff is in there. How many wrecks are on this planet, anyway? I bet we could get a whole fleet of Franken-Flies out of that scrap if we had enough time." She smiled at him then went back to gathering her tools. "Jordan doing all right?"

"Yeah, seems fine," Simon said, leaning against the doorway to watch her. She was starting to show, but you couldn't tell when she wore her overalls, which she'd taken to wearing all the time. He wished he could have taken her away from all this to have the baby in peace. To live simple.

But Simon couldn't have simple. That just wouldn't be the Tam way.


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

On the tenth day of their stay on Ion, Jayne awoke in his bunk with the strange feeling that something wasn't quite right. The first thing he noticed, even before he opened his eyes, was that his bed was not as warm as usual. Jayne turned to his side and opened his eyes. He wasn't all that surprised that River wasn't there. He frowned as he noticed something else was wrong.

Not only was his woman not in his bed where she belonged, the wall by his bed was bare. All his weapons were gone. He liked to keep them by his side in case something interesting happened in the middle of the night. Like Reavers or the Alliance boarding them. Both not entirely impossible in his line of work. Except, what good was a wall of weapons if your woman got up early and took them all down?

When Jayne got up to find his missing Moonbrain, all he had to do was follow the echo of River's mumblings. She had been doing this more and more lately. The noise led him to the kitchen, where River had laid out all his weapons and was apparently cataloging them. Or something. What was the use in cataloging weapons? Jayne didn't know. If they got the job done, then that was that. No need to overthink it.

"Medium range weapon. Five shots max. Need a better quick-load mechanism," River was mumbling, turning one of Jayne's guns over and over in her hands.

"Bess don't have a quick-load mechanism," Jayne said, coming into the kitchen.

"Precisely," River muttered, putting down the gun. "What good is a gun without a quick-load mechanism? Maybe Scorpio could add one for you."

"Don't let that kid touch my Bess!" Jayne snapped. River looked at him, tilting her head, as if she were just now realizing something was wrong with this scenario. "What are you doing?" he asked, gesturing to his weapons.

"The better question is, what are _you_ doing?" River asked. "Sleeping late with battle imminent. And one of your best weapons doesn't even have a quick-load mechanism," she said, shaking her head.

If she said "quick-load mechanism" one more time, Jayne would not be responsible for his actions.

"You don't think you're responsible for any of your actions," River muttered. "Otherwise you would be more careful about them."

Jayne sighed, agitated. He hadn't been this agitated for about two years. There weren't many times that River acted like the old River, the River they found in the box, the River who was just a little bat shit crazy. But this was apparently one of those times.

River glared at him. "I am not crazy," she said. "I am not paranoid. I am not a Moonbrain."

"'Course you are," Jayne said. "And usually that's a damn good thing. But, gorram it, River, what are you doing with all my stuff? I need my stuff. And I need my stuff to stay out of the hands of those kids!"

River ignored him and picked up his knife. "This is a close range weapon. Are you expecting to get close enough to have to use this?" she asked.

"Well, yeah, actually," Jayne muttered. "See, fits right here in my belt, and then when chaos ensues, as it does regular-like with us, I have somethin' to fall back on," Jayne said. That knife had saved his ass quite a few times, and River knew it.

"River," Jayne said slowly as she carefully put down his knife again. Relief spread over Jayne. He still had a touchy spot when he saw River holding big knives. Couldn't help it. He still didn't think he looked good in red.

"These weapons are not good enough," River muttered. "You must be prepared."

"I am prepared," Jayne said. "We all are, sweetheart." River raised an eyebrow. Okay, maybe she wasn't a "sweetheart" kind of woman. It had felt weird to say it, anyway. "You got Mal to install those guns on the ships, didn't you?"

River glared. "Not that he wanted to do it. He's still complaining that Serenity is not a warship."

"Well, originally, no, but now it is. And he did it, complaining or no complaining, he did it," Jayne reasoned. "And you and the kids picked Mr. Universe's place clean, even got Frank running like a real Firefly." Which, actually hadn't been asking much of the Franken-fly, but it would take off and break atmo. "So, we'll be ready to scram when they get here, whichever one finds us first," Jayne added.

"We aren't going to be able to stop them all, Jayne," River said. "They'll catch us. No matter how far into the black we fly, they'll catch us. They'll just keep coming and coming until they get back what we stole."

That prediction sounded awfully familiar.

"They're getting closer aren't they?" Jayne asked.

River nodded. "Closer and closer. Both armies are coming closer and closer, just waiting for us to come out and play."

This was getting very damaging to Jayne's calm. Which had been on shakey ground anyway. What with his woman slowly going crazy. Which didn't bode well for any of them. If they couldn't rely on River, how would they know when the armies got here? Where to shoot? How would they get clear of this without River Tam?

"Figure it out," River advised in a whisper. She started cleaning Vera. "Such a pretty gun," she said. "But won't do any good in the black. Needs oxygen around her." She looked up at Jayne. His River was hardly there. "We are so humped," she muttered, meeting his eyes.

Was that her thought or his?

"Jayne!" the intercom sprang to life with Mal's voice. "We're about to get some company!"

"What?" Jayne asked, surprised.

"He can't hear you, stupid-head," River muttered.

"What's going on, River?" he asked.

"They're coming for us," River said, getting up. She threw Jayne his gun. "Time to play."

Jayne really didn't like this.

"Makes two of us," River muttered.

Jayne ran for the bridge, only to run into Mal in the hall. "What's up?"

"We've got Browncoats," Mal said. "Or really dirty Alliance," he added. "Scorpio saw them on Mr. Universe's scanners. They're comin' in fast."

"Time to get the hell outta here then, right?" Jayne asked.

"Almost," Mal said. "Go cover the tourists, make sure they get on the ships."

Jayne nodded and ran for it.

The Browncoats had already landed and were laying down fire between Mr. Universe's place and the ships. They must have known some of the kids were still in there. Probably hoped Mal would cut and run, leaving them the kids in the building. The Browncoats thought of the kids as property, weapons. Who risks everything to get a few weapons out of a building? But they weren't weapons. They weren't exactly people yet, but they weren't gonna be weapons ever again. And Jayne was gonna make sure of it.

Jayne slid into cover as he entered the fray. And ran into Jordan. "What the hell are you doin' here?" he yelled at him. "You oughta be in the infirmary!"

"I'm fine!" Jordan yelled back over the noise. Enemy ships had started sweeping over them. They were either out of misiles or had orders not to fire, because no hellfire rained down from above.

Jayne glared at his brother.

"You sayin' you don't need me?" Jordan asked. To make his point, he quickly aimed and fired his rifle in the air. A few seconds later, a ship was spinning out of control above their heads.

Jayne looked from the ship to Jordan. "How the hell you do that?" he asked.

Jordan shrugged. "You've got your gifts, I got mine," he muttered.

Jayne would have to ask him to elaborate on that later. Just now there was a grenade flying at them. The Cobb brothers sprang apart, running for cover elsewhere. After Jayne saw that Jordan was safe, he ran for the compound.

At the door, he found Sagittarius. She was firing a machine gun. Not hitting anyone, really, but none of the Browncoats seemed too excited about tempting fate by trying to get past her. She concentrated her fire to the left when she saw Jayne, giving him enough of a gap to get through. He was actually surprised she hadn't hit him. When he said as much, Sagittarius gave a huff and muttered, "If I'd wanted to kill you, I would have."

Sometimes, Jayne liked Sagittarius's style. She didn't stop firing as Jayne dashed into the compound.

Simon was there. But only Leo was with him. "Where's Scorpio?" he asked, not even mentioning the other kids who were supposed to be here. The compound was huge, especially this part, which was more like a giant hangar.

"Already made a run for Frank with Kuan-Yin," Simon answered. "Capricorn's already there," he added. No surprise there. Little kid loved Sam and Meg, for whatever reason.

"And Kaylee?" Jayne asked. He knew she'd been working on Frank. He didn't know if she still was.

"She wasn't feeling well last night, so she spent the night on Serenity," Simon said, looking understandably relieved. "Where's River?"

Yeah, about River. Jayne wondered for a moment if this was a good time to mention that the doc's sister was going crazy again. "Out there," Jayne said.

"In here," River corrected, practically flying through the room. "We have to go this way!" she yelled. Then she spoke into her communicator. "Barn swallow!"

Jayne heard Mal answer her, "I can't do a barn swallow!"

True. Mal wasn't that good.

"Virgo can!" she yelled back.

Jayne and Simon seemed to get the plan at the same time. They grabbed Leo and Sagittarius and started running after River.

"'Nara!" River suddenly started calling. "Gem! Eye! Time to fly!"

"Where are they?" Jayne asked. Mal asked the same thing over the com.

Simon shook his head. "I thought they were on Serenity."

"Gem and Eye don't like the ship!" River called over her shoulder. "So Inara started staying with them here."

"Enemies on our tail!" Sagittarius started yelling.

Jayne turned. Yup, the Browncoats were following them. He started firing. Sagittarius did the same. The difference was, of course, that Jayne was actually hitting them. Sagittarius wasn't doing so well.

"Weren't you trained by the gorram Alliance? Can't you hit the side of a barn?"

Sagittarius glanced over at him. "Of course I can hit the side of a barn. Where is the barn you want me to hit?" she asked.

Jayne shook his head and kept firing, wishing there was someone else who could help him out here. Just as he was thinking it, a shuttle zoomed by overhead. Not Inara's shuttle, the other one. And Zoe was hanging out of it, shooting Browncoats left and right. Jordan was there, too, though he looked a little worse for wear. Jayne noticed he got off a couple of shots, but it looked like his brother had been hit. Couldn't he stay out of trouble for five gorram minutes? The ship flew around the Browncoats a couple of times, pushing them back.

"Go!" a voice called from the shuttle's speakers. "We'll meet you there!" Was that Pisces? What the hell was Pisces doing flying the shuttle?

"More important things to worry about just now, Sweetheart!" River yelled. Jayne grabbed Sagittarius and ran for it. River was at the far end of the hangar, still calling for Inara. It didn't sit well with Jayne that she couldn't find her.

"River!" Inara's voice was on the communicator. "It's okay! I'm on Frank. Gem and Eye are with me. Don't worry. We'll see you soon."

"Inara, I want you back on Serenity right now!" Mal yelled over the com.

Great, now they were not only fighting in front of the whole crew, they were doing it so the crew had no choice but to listen. Jayne rolled his eyes and took the communicator from his ear.

River had already sprung back into action, jumping into an ATV. Jayne wasn't sure how fast it would go, but it would at least hold everyone. That was something. More than what they'd had a second ago. They piled in as Jayne heard a different voice on the communicator. He stuck the earpiece back on.

"We can't get to you! There are ships tryin' to dive bomb us all over!" Aries? River nodded at Jayne as she started up the ATV. Yup, Aries.

"Shoot 'em down!" Jayne yelled back as River put her foot down on the gas. They lurched forward with surprising speed. Maybe Scorpio had played with this. If they all survived, Jayne would ask him.

"What the hell you think I'm tryin' to do?" Aries yelled back. Then shots were fired. The big gun. On top of the ship. Aries was on top of Serenity, firing at the ships.

"Nothing like a battle for our lives to get folks cooperatin'," Jayne muttered, wondering if Libra had come out of her bunk to join in the fun, too, or if she was just letting everyone else do the work.

"You had better hurry." Speak of the devil. "Their ground troups are moving in as well," Libra said.

More shots echoed across the communicators. Smaller weapons this time.

The ATV sped across the open ground. The Browncoats hadn't made it to the back door yet.

"Better get ready to fire," River muttered as she turned towards Serenity. Jayne could see the ship in the distance. It was hard to miss it, since several small Browncoat ships were spinning around it. One had crashed already. Aries was firing like mad at them, still.

As they got closer, Jayne and Sagittarius started firing. River told Simon to take the wheel, freeing up her hands to shoot, as well. They drove right up into the ship, then Simon hit the emergency brake, and they skidded to a stop, screeching across the hold and ramming into the far wall. It would hold, Jayne determined, jumping out of the ATV.

"We got 'em. Virgo, get us out of here!" Libra yelled over the com.

"Yes, Virgo, please get us out of here," Aquarius whimpered from a far corner of the hold. Jayne was surprised to see him there. Then again, the kid basically hadn't left the hold for ten days.

"You got it, boss," Virgo said, and before they even had the door closed, the ship was lurching upward. Libra and Taurus continued to fire for a few seconds before the door began to close.

Libra turned and looked right at River. "I told you I did not like this planet," she said severely.

Jayne ran to the bridge, again running into Mal in the hallway. "Frank?" Jayne asked.

Mal nodded. "Got clear before we did. And the shuttle can break atmo easy. They'll meet us up in the black." Mal turned back to the bridge. "Aries is coming back in now," Mal said, pointing up.

Oh, yeah. They had a kid on the roof. Good thing the hatch was working again.

"You think next time we could get a warning before the planet gets invaded?" Mal asked.

Jayne smiled. "Where's the fun in that?"

They were out in the black in not time, but the Browncoats were still trying to follow them, less intent on saving the kids now, if their firing on Serenity was any indication.

"Any tricks up our sleeves?" Jayne asked, coming onto the bridge.

Virgo, from the pilot's seat, looked back at him. "What sleeves?" she asked.

Jayne sighed. He wished these kids knew gorram English.

"We've got one," River said, pushing past Jayne and planting herself in the co-pilot's seat. "Here's something you didn't know we could do," she muttered, pushing a few buttons.

There was a clunking then kind of a swooshing noise from the ship. Then, Jayne saw from the screen tracking their followers, an explosion.

"Did we just shoot a rocket at them?" Jayne asked. "When did we get rockets?"

"Don't get too excited," Mal warned. "We only got one more."

Now River looked back at him, "But they don't know that."

Sure enough, the Browncoats fell back. Rockets on a Firefly. Jayne never thought he'd see the day. From the look on Mal's face, the Captain knew the feeling.

"I'll be in my bunk," River muttered suddenly, getting up and rushing out of the room.

Jayne looked at Mal. Mal nodded. They were clear now. At least, River thought they were clear. Which usually meant they were okay for the moment. So Jayne followed her. He had expected her to go to his bunk. That's what she usually meant now when she said "my bunk." But, no.

Jayne found her sitting on _her_ bed, crying and rocking back and forth. He sat down beside her and put his arm around her. "It's all right," he said. She continued to rock. "We're safe now."

River shook her head. "We're not safe," she said shakily. "We'll never be safe with them on board."

Jayne didn't know what to say to that. So he just held her, wishing he could say she was wrong.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

"Dr. Williams, it's good to see you back," the Chief said softly and calmly. The Chief always spoke just this way. He thought it put people at ease, made them want to give him whatever he wanted.

Dr. Reginald Williams found he didn't want to the Chief anything but a kick in the head.

"And how did your mission go?" the Chief asked.

"As expected," Williams answered. "The crew of Serenity has taken custody of the Academy students."

"Which ones are we testing again?" the Chief asked.

"Project Zodiac," Williams answered. As if the Chief didn't already know all the answers to his stupid questions.

"Ah, yes, Project Zodiac. That was yours, predominantly, yes?" the Chief asked. Williams nodded. "Good. Then we know it will be a good test for them. If your programming can't hold, Dr. Williams, I don't know whose can."

"Thank you, Sir," Williams said, knowing that's what the Chief wanted to hear. Williams did not feel grateful for the compliment. He did not want to be the best programmer the Alliance had. Not when you took into account what he was meant to be programming. Not only that, but if the programming did hold, all was lost. If it didn't, at least they had a chance.

"I am a little concerned about the Graces," the Chief said, moving on. "I thought they would have performed a lot better."

The Chief thought the Graces could kill River Tam and Jayne Cobb. Right. And Williams could afford steak for dinner every night.

"Yes, I know," William said, silently thanking God that his idiot colleagues hadn't succeeded with the androids. As long as they continued to fail with the originals, they wouldn't try to make any more. Williams shivered slightly as he thought of an army of Graces.

"Why do you suppose that is?" the Chief asked.

_Because my colleagues are short-sighted idiots,_ Dr. Williams thought. Of course, what he actually went with was, "I believe it was a stunning and unforeseeable combination of Jayne Cobb's loyalty to River Tam and the Graces not being ready for a fight."

"Any ideas how to resolve the situation?" the Chief asked.

Yes, actually. Give up the whole program. Project Zodiac? Let them go. The Graces? Erase the programs, make them very realistic fem-bots and move on. The Fates? Never let them leave the planning table.

"I believe their psychological warfare programming should be dropped in favor of more combat training. They will need to actually hit someone eventually, Sir," Williams said.

After all, if one of them hit River Tam, she could toss the android against the wall. All she needed was some sort of contact. No one, not even a computer-powered android could beat River Tam in a fistfight. That's why she was River Tam.

"Hmm," the Chief said thoughtfully. Williams knew before he said anything else that the answer was no. "I will certainly take that under consideration."

That was the nicest way of saying "piss off" ever, but Williams barely kept himself from rolling his eyes. When would this farce be over? He wasn't just thinking about the meeting, either.

"Meanwhile, any more word from Colonel Smith?" the Chief asked.

"I expect I'll hear from him later today. He seemed to think yesterday that he'd figured out where Serenity was."

"Oh? Do tell?" the Chief was intrigued. Of course he was.

"Wouldn't my answering that interfere with the test? Knowing where they are, we would hardly be able to resist going after them. And part of the test is seeing whether they contact us."

The Chief looked disappointed, like Williams had just taken away a Christmas present. "Oh, I suppose you're right. Go on."

"I believe Smith will give me an update on that soon. He may demand a way to find them or turn them against the crew, through the programming. If he failed, that is."

"Which you suspect he has," the Chief led.

"Of course," Williams had no qualms about saying. "Geming Smith is an idiot." He paused. "But what should I tell him? When pressed about the programming?" Williams was supposed to be on Smith's side. If he gave him nothing, the Colonel would start to get suspicious.

The Chief was silent for a few minutes. The clockwork in his brain was slow on a good day, so Williams wasn't surprised when it took him so long to say, "Tell him about the Fail Safe."

"What?" Williams asked. He would do no such thing.

"Give him the instructions for the Fail Safe protocol," the Chief repeated.

Williams's own clockwork was doing double time, "But that's confidential information. I don't even have the full file." That didn't mean Williams didn't know how it worked. But he hoped this would give the Chief a moment to realize what a gorram stupid thing he was about to do.

The Chief waved this off. No such luck. "Then I'll make sure he gets the file myself," he said.

Gorram it all. Gorram it all to Hell. And gorram the Chief. And gorram Williams, too, for that matter.

"What better way to test the programming?" the Chief asked. "Smith or us. Someone was bound to use the Fail Safe at the end of this test," he added. "You have your instructions, you may go now."

Williams felt like he was going to be sick. He nodded to the Chief and practically bolted from the room. And suddenly, Williams knew how this would play out. How the farce would end. If only there was something, anything really, that he could do about it.

"How'd it go?" Dr. Douglass asked, catching up to Williams as he headed towards his office. "You look awful. Hey, how about a drink?" she asked. "You can tell me all about it. I'm buying."

Emma Douglass was an idiot who knew she was an idiot and was trying to do better. Not that she ever took Williams's advice. But the humility made her a better person. In general, she wasn't as morally or socially repugnant as the others. Sometimes, Williams even found himself liking her.

"Emma," Williams said slowly, "I really don't think it's a good idea."

Emma smiled. "Can't blame me for trying," she said. She readjusted her glasses nervously,. She was actually a very pretty woman. If you went for the glasses and lab coat look. Which Williams did.

Williams shook his head. He would not think about this right now. He was in the middle of something here. Something incredibly dangerous and, yes, he could admit it, incredibly stupid. Right, but stupid. And this was just not the time to start thinking about how good Emma actually looked in that lab coat.

Maybe, if she was still interested when this was all over… Williams doubted that would happen. If he lived through this, well, first it'd be a gorram miracle, and second, he'd be a traitor to the Alliance, to the Academy, and to Emma herself. It was partially her work that he was trying to undo. Who could forgive that?

"Wow," Emma said, bringing Williams back to reality. The reality where she was on the wrong side. "What'd I say? You look even worse now. Seriously, Reg, what happened?"

"He's giving Smith the Fail Safe," Williams said, thrown off guard by her use of his nickname.

Emma's brown eyes grew wide. After a moment, she said, "That doesn't mean Smith will _use_ it."

"You think he'll be able to resist?" Williams asked. Having that kind of power over them, well, it was tempting for Williams, even though he knew the consequences. Williams really didn't want to think about Smith having to make the same choice.

Emma looked doubtful. "But he'd need to get all thirteen of them together, facing off against him. For it to work right, anyway. Right?" she asked.

Williams nodded. That would be the most effective way to use it. And you only had one shot at the Fail Safe.

"Besides," Emma added, "we're going to get them back first. The test will be a resounding success, and you'll get another promotion." She smiled, so sure that everything would be all right.

Williams didn't have the heart to tell her the rest of it. That the Chief wanted Smith to use the Fail Safe. Because then, if the kids died, if they were erased, or damaged in any other unforeseen way, the Chief could blame it all on Williams and Smith. The Chief's hands would be clean. Just how the bastard liked them.

Maybe Williams had underestimated his boss.

"I have to go, Emma," he said quickly, making a run for it. He had to get out of there before he confessed everything. He was that sick of being alone in this mess.

He hadn't even made it to his office when one of the receptionists paged him over the com system. "Dr. Reginald Williams to the front desk, please, you have a package. Dr. Reginald Williams to the front desk to pick up a package."

Williams sighed. There wasn't really a package. Well, there was a package, but it was empty. It was just a signal for Williams to call Smith. Walk his forty-year-old ass down the block to the public terminal and call his other boss.

"How was the weather on Ion?" Williams asked when the wave connected. "I hear the lightning storms are fierce."

"Gorram it, Williams, this is not a social call," Smith huffed at him.

Williams was thinking of a word. It started with "D" and ended in "uh."

"What happened?" Williams asked as politely as he could. Though, he already knew it had been bad. Very bad. Which actually made Williams feel a little better.

"I lost half a dozen ships, that's what!" Smith bellowed.

"I didn't realize you had half a dozen ships to lose," Williams said before he could stop himself. Not very smart, poking an injured dragon. Even when the dragon was out in the black chasing down fireflies.

"I don't," Smith muttered.

"So they _were_ on Ion then," Williams said, hopefully shifting William's concentration into a less touchy area.

"Yes, Kyle Connor finally got one right. But now," Smith let the sentence drop for a second. When Williams had just about given up on him getting it back, Smith finished, "Reynolds knows the Black better than anyone. We ain't gonna find him easy again."

Really? Seemed to Williams a day would have been easy. A week would have been easy. Ten days was not easy. Not impossible, obviously, but not easy. Williams decided not to ask about Smith's standards of measuring.

"He's also got the kids fighting for him now," Smith said.

Williams sat up. He'd expected it eventually. Eventually, not within a week and a half. Had Malcolm Reynolds won over Libra already? That wasn't how Williams had raised her. But. This was Smith. "You fired upon the students?" Williams asked.

"They fired on us too," Smith said. "That Mars – "

"Aries," Williams corrected.

" – crashed four of my ships!"

_Good for Aries,_ Williams thought.

That explained it, then. Smith fired at them, around them, whatever. The Alphas would do anything to protect the younger ones. For a moment, at least, Libra would join the crew of Serenity in raining down vengeance upon a mutual enemy. Smith might have done Williams's cause a favor.

"Doc, I need to know how to stop them," Smith said slowly, harshly. "And I need to know now."

Williams thought for a minute. This was not happening. Denial could work for a minute. "I'll look into it," he said. "Have to go. I'm being paged." This was a lie, of course. The Academy knew what he was doing and would never interrupt. Williams just needed out of there. He wasn't going to tell Smith anything about the Fail Safe. If the Chief really was going to do it, then Williams would postpone it for as long as he could.

"I still don't understand how you managed to keep your cover," Smith said, shaking his head.

It was easy.

"They think I'm too stupid and loyal to pull something like this off," Williams muttered.

How many angles was Williams playing now? He was starting to lose track.

"Well, good for you," Smith said. "Get me my intel, Doc."

The screen flashed off before Williams could tell him to go to hell. See, there was a God. And He liked Williams. For now.

A message was waiting for him back at his office. A wave. It had a lot of static and cracked a lot. It had been sent from out in the black. Williams's heart started beating uncomfortably fast as he watched it. He wasn't sure what he'd seen, so he pressed play again.

Libra's young face filled the screen. She looked serious and desperate. Williams felt a familiar pang of guilt when he saw her.

"Doctor, please send help! We've been taken by the crew of Serenity. I'm losing the group. They've separated us. We are headed for the planet Isis. Whether we'll be landing on the planet or one of the moons, I – "

It cut off. They'd interrupted it. But Libra was good and had made sure they hadn't caught her in time. Isis. A good hiding place.

Or, it would have been, if the Chief didn't monitor all the incoming waves to the Academy.

"Gorram it all, Libra," Williams muttered. It looked like he was going to have settle this in person. Williams was going to have to find a way to Isis.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"Why were those people trying to hurt us?" Pisces asked from the pilot's seat.

Zoe glanced up from Jordan's wound. They were circling Serenity, getting ready to dock. She wasn't certain now was the greatest time for a chat about all the people who wanted the crew dead and why. "Because they're bad," Zoe said, trying to keep things simple.

"They wore brown coats," Cancer said slowly. "Captain Reynolds wears a brown coat."

"It's a popular color," Jordan muttered.

"Pisces, Cancer, I'll explain later. Just, please concentrate on what you're doing," Zoe pleaded.

"She's hedging," Cancer muttered.

"What does that mean?" Pisces asked.

"She doesn't want to answer our questions. I learned the word from Jayne Cobb. He has a very colorful vocabulary."

Zoe suddenly worried for Cancer.

"But, it is important to pay attention, Pisces," Cancer continued. "I don't want to die today."

"I don't want to die ever," Pisces muttered back.

"I respect that sentiment," Jordan said.

"Are you all right?" Zoe asked. He was looking pale.

"You tell me. Ain't you the one playin' doctor?" Jordan asked, smiling, eyes shining, despite his situation. Leave it to a Cobb to flirt at a moment like this.

"Looks like it went right through your shoulder," Zoe said, ignoring the fiery eyes and the bothered feeling she was getting. "Should heal up all right. We're gonna have to start calling you 'Lucky.'"

"Yeah?" Jordan asked. He grabbed her hand and held it for a few moments. He looked her in the eye, "I guess I am pretty lucky."

"Stop it," Zoe said, softer than she had wanted to, as she took her hand back.

"Stop what?" Jordan asked, smiling at her. Most of the time, Jordan looked so much like his brother, it freaked Zoe out. But when he smiled, well. Jayne didn't smile like that. Jordan's smile seemed to fill up the whole 'verse. Zoe didn't like thinking like that.

Zoe did her best to hold back a smile of her own. "You know what, Jordan Cobb," she said, trying to sound stern.

She had a feeling she failed.

"Yeah," Jordan agreed, "I do. But why should I stop?"

Now Zoe _really_ didn't like this. There was a reason soldiers shouldn't get involved with each other. In a combat situation, it was dangerous, distracting. They'd both just end up getting hurt. And Zoe wasn't quite ready to risk that.

"Oh," Jordan said sadly, nodding his head. "That's why."

Zoe regarded him carefully. Did he already know her that well?

The shuttle docked to Serenity with a series of clunks. Jordan suddenly sat up, put his arm around Zoe's neck and kissed her, quickly, urgently. Like he knew he had only a few seconds to accomplish his goal. What that goal was, Zoe didn't know. All she knew, and she hated to admit it, even to herself, was that Jordan Cobb was an excellent kisser.

He pulled back before the shuttle doors opened, looked Zoe in the eye again, and said, "I'm not scared. Not scared enough to give up without trying. Think about it." He pulled himself up as Simon came in, and the doctor helped him out of the shuttle, while Zoe sat there for a few seconds, wondering what had just happened.

And why she felt good about it.

"Zoe, we got a situation," Jayne said, rushing into the shuttle. "Mal wants you on the bridge." Zoe nodded. "Kids, go down to the hold and sit tight. And don't talk," he ordered Cancer and Pisces.

Zoe looked form Jayne to the two kids who had just helped them get clear of a small army.

Pisces opened his mouth, probably to ask why, when Cancer said, "It's important, Pisces. I can tell. We will do what you ask, Jayne Cobb," she said. Jayne nodded at her.

As the kids exited the shuttle, Zoe gave Jayne her full attention. He looked agitated, worried. It was a common look for him lately. Zoe wouldn't have thought Jayne would ever take life so seriously. Then again, she would never have thought Jayne would have a romantic attachment to River.

"You comin'?" Jayne asked Zoe after a couple moments.

When Zoe stepped onto the bridge, it took Mal less than a minute to explain what had happened. But it took him a lot longer to calm down enough to tell her what he planned to do about it.

"I don't understand how this happened!" he yelled to the room.

River gave him a very innocent look from the pilot's seat.

"And don't tell me you warned me about her!" he yelled to her.

River shrugged.

After a few seconds of Chinese, Mal asked, "Was she just waiting 'til we got off Ion before sending it? And how did she get that much of it through? And why didn't you see what she was going to do?"

River blinked at him, then started ticking off points on her fingers, "Yes, she was. She's very smart. And, I was a little distracted with trying to find Inara for you. You were very worried, Captain."

Mal began to mutter again in Chinese. Zoe decided to address River herself. "We're sure she contacted Williams?" River nodded. "Does that mean we're getting Browncoats or Alliance or both?"

River had stopped listening. She was staring out the window. "So vast and so small," she said.

Zoe looked questioningly at Jayne. Was River okay? Jayne looked away, like he was a mind-reader, too.

"She's hanging by a frazzled thread and understands past actions a lot better than she used to. A lot better than he'd like her to," River said softly.

"You said you wouldn't bring that up again!" Jayne said loudly.

"I didn't. You did," River said, still staring out the window.

Frankly, River was starting to worry Zoe. In fact, Zoe was more disturbed by River's recent behavior than by Libra's message to the Alliance.

"Enough!" Mal shouted. "You two can have your crazy time later. Let's deal with the matter at hand. One psychotic star sign." Mal stopped abruptly and leaned over the console, thinking.

"Where is she, Sir?" Zoe asked.

"Her bunk," Mal answered. "_Locked_ in her bunk," he elaborated. "The other two Alphas are in their bunks, too. 'Til we figure out what to do."

"Why are the others in the hold?" Zoe asked. "If some are locked up, why not all?"

"Because the others ain't the problem," Mal said. "At least, according to our little Albatross. Ain't that right, River? The others are okay."

"They're confused. But they won't give us any trouble. They follow orders very well. It's what they were made for," River said. She began playing with her hair. Not a good development.

"And, what exactly are you planning to do with her?" Zoe asked.

Mal shook his head.

"Simon says it ain't her fault. It was the program," Jayne said. "Made her act out, reach' for the Alliance. Predetermined behavior for iffin she ever got separated from them. She didn't have no choice."

Now Zoe's world was completely upside down. Jayne was explaining Alliance technology to her. What?

"It must be what going mad feels like," River said. After a moment, she added, "Not that I would know."

Mal held up a hand. "We have to regroup," he said, getting back to Zoe's question. "We'll dock with Frank and figure things out."

"He just wants Inara back onboard," River said.

Mal sighed. Zoe half-expected him to start yelling again. Maybe the fight was out of him, though, because all he said was, "I want everyone together. Cut the power to the cortex once you give Gellar the plan. We go dark."

"All the better to blend into the black," River said.

"And you," Mal said, looking at her, "Stop with the crazy. We don't got the time to deal with that right now."

"I'm sure I'm losing it for my own amusement," River muttered, glaring at him. Mal glared right back. River looked away first. "I'll try, Captain," she whispered. "But I don't know if – "

"Jayne," Mal said, interrupting her, "Take River to her bunk. Your bunk. Whatever. Don't tell me which. And see if you can clear away some of the mess in her head for her."

Zoe wasn't sure Jayne was qualified for that. He had a mess in his own brain to worry about.

Forty minutes later, Mal sat at the head of the kitchen table, face contorted in agitation, explaining the situation to both crews, minus River and Jayne, who were still getting their heads clear. Zoe hoped that's what they were doing, anyway. Frank's crew was silent throughout his explanation. Sonja Gellar, for one, did not look surprised. Meg and Sam also seemed to accept the news rather well. Only Kuan-Yin looked shocked. On the other side of the table, Kaylee looked down, sad. Simon glared at the table, probably angry with himself. Jordan just leaned against the wall, not saying a word. Meanwhile, Inara just looked at Mal, studying him, probably trying to figure him out again.

"So," Sam said from his end of the table, "Basically, what we're saying here is we're humped."

"Basically," Jordan muttered.

Mal shook his head. "We've got some time. If we move fast, we can find ourselves a spot to lay low."

"Isis is still a damn fine place to hide, Mal," Sonja said, nodding. "And those seven scorpions oughtta help us out, too."

"Yeah! We can moon-hop," Meg said, nodding. Everyone looked at her. The girl looked, well, excited, by the idea. She looked around at the crews, surprised. "You know, just jump off from one moon to another. I've been studyin' them for a while, the seven scorpions. They're close together and not heavily occupied. We can hop from one moon to another, confuse them."

"Scanners," Sam said. "How do you confuse scanners?" he asked.

Meg smiled at him. "Scanners, yeah. The scanners will see two ships," she held up two fingers. She shook her head. "They won't know which one is which." She moved her fingers up and down and kind of danced a little in her seat.

Where had the Browncoats found her, exactly?

"And while they're trying to figure it out, you can make another run for it with the kids," Sonja said.

"And maybe we can take a few of them down, while we're at it," Sam said, coming around.

"You are one trigger-happy son of a bitch, aren't you?" Meg asked, smiling at him again.

Sam shrugged, smiling back.

"Suicide," Jordan muttered.

"Maybe," Sonja offered. Kuan-Yin looked at her. The general shrugged. "What other choice have we got at this point?"

"But they know we're heading to Isis," Simon said.

"So, maybe they won't expect this," Mal said. "Zoe? You been awful quiet about the master plan. What've you got to add?"

Zoe nodded. "If we run, they'll just find us someplace else. Isis and the Scorpions are about the best shot we're gonna get at controllin' some of the fight."

"Too late!" River's suddenly shouted over the intercom. "They're here!"

The two crews erupted from the table. "Separate! Go for hard burn! Try to make it to the Scorpions!" Mal ordered.

Jordan grabbed Zoe's arm as she was headed for the bridge. "They need a gunner," he said, nodding back to Frank's crew, who were headed out the back.

Zoe nodded. "You should go," she said.

He locked eyes with her, and for a moment Zoe thought he was going to kiss her again. Then he nodded, let go of her arm, and backed off. "Be careful," he told her. Then he was gone.

Time to go be big damn heroes. Again.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

"River, how close are they?" Mal asked, pushing past Inara on his way to the bridge. Inara followed him.

"Close," River muttered.

Inara looked out into the black. She couldn't see anything. She looked at the scanners. There was nothing there. "River?" she asked.

"They're close," River stated from her seat.

Mal turned to Jayne, "I thought you were gonna calm her down."

"She started pitchin' a fit. Damn near demanded we come up here and save everyone," Jayne muttered, leaning against the wall. It amazed Inara how much he looked and acted like Jordan.

"How close is close, River?" Mal asked.

"Too close," River answered. Mal sighed in agitation. Inara couldn't blame him. "They'll catch us within the hour. I can hear them coming."

"An hour away?" Mal asked.

"The Alliance thinks very loudly," River muttered.

"Alliance," Mal repeated.

River nodded.

"They alone?" Mal asked.

River glared out the window for a few moments. "There are no Browncoats with them," she said. "I don't know if the Graces are coming. They were hard enough to read standing right in front of me."

"'Cause they're robots," Jayne muttered.

"They ain't robots, Jayne," Mal sighed.

Jayne shook his head, but didn't push his point. Technology had come a long way in robotics but even fembots were still clunky, odd. They were not graceful. They could not dodge bullets. If the Graces were robots, they were a new kind of robot entirely. Not that Inara actually thought Jayne could be right. Not even a little bit.

The ship clunked and buckled slightly as Frank disconnected.

"We've got an hour, Captain," River reminded everyone.

Mal nodded. "Hard burn, now."

"Pedal to the metal, Kaylee. Ready back there?" River asked over the com.

"All's shiney, River," Kaylee answered.

River pushed the ship faster than Inara had ever seen it go. They were coming up on the first Scorpion, Petet, before Inara would have thought it possible.

"Frank keepin' pace all right?" Mal asked.

River tilted her head, concentrating. Then she shook her head. "I think they're having trouble. I can't hear them very well. We better break radio silence so Kaylee can help them."

"Break radio silence and the Alliance will be able to track us."

"They can track our heat signatures," River said. "Hard burn. Burn. Heat. Signature. Follow." River said oddly.

"Besides, Mal," Inara said, "They already know where we are." She shrugged. "What will breaking radio silence matter?"

"Why they call them the Scorpions, anyway?" Jayne asked, taking a step towards the window. Petet loomed before them. Inara remembered correctly, the first scorpion had terraformed really dry. It was mostly desert, and mostly uninhabited.

"The Scorpions were Isis's traveling companions, her honor guard," Inara said. "They protected her and her son Horus from Set after he killed his brother Osiris."

"Osiris." Jayne looked at River.

"You can see my planet from Isis," River said. "On clear nights. That's why she's Isis. And the Scorpions surround her, protecting her."

"Right," Mal said. "Well, now they can protect us, too."

A wave suddenly came up on the screen. "A little help here, Reynolds," Sam said, his worried face appearing on the screen.

"River!" Mal yelled. "I didn't tell you to break radio silence."

River shrugged. "They can't be a decoy if they die."

"I concur with that conclusion," Sam said. Inara wondered how old he actually was. So many times he seemed older, like he'd seen too many things. Other times, when he was with Meg, for instance, he looked very young.

"He's twenty-five," River muttered.

"Eh?" Sam asked. "Never mind, where's Kaylee? Frank's pitchin' a fit and Kuan-Yin needs Kaylee's brainpan for a quick minute before things get too interesting here."

"Kaylee," Mal muttered over the com, "We're patching a wave through. Kuan-Yin and Frank need your help."

"The engine's probably smokin' already from the hard burn. We always knew it'd be a might tricky makin' a runaway with him. Again. Pushin' 'im too far too - "

"Kaylee, I don't need to know the details. Just talk to Kuan-Yin. Get Frank straight. Fill me in later."

"Okey, dokey, Captain," Kaylee sang.

Mal started to pace across the bridge. Then he saw Inara. "A word?" he asked, taking her arm and dragging her into the hall.

"Mal!" Inara yelled, yanking her arm back.

"Inara, I want you to take the shuttle and get out of here while you can," Mal said.

"What?" Inara asked, wondering what the hell had gotten into his head.

"Take the shuttle - "

"I heard you, Mal," Inara said angrily.

"Then what's the hold up? Get going! They'll be here any minute."

"Correction, Captain! They're here right now! Permission to fly aggressively, Captain?" River called from the bridge.

"Yes! Get us the hell out of here!" Mal yelled back. Then he spoke into his com. "Kaylee, got any tricks - "

"Already on it, Captain, not to fret," Kaylee answered.

"Not to fret," Mal repeated. "Right." He looked back at Inara. "Go. Shuttle. Now. Before it's too late."

"You want me to take the students with me? Or Kaylee?" Inara asked, trying to understand his logic.

"No."

Oh, right. Inara was talking to Mal. The man who had bought a death trap and turned it into his home. The man _had_ no logic.

"Just go, Inara. I don't want you involved in this," Mal said, pleading.

Inara sighed and rolled her eyes. The ship tilted suddenly, and she was thrown into Mal's arms. A warning shot, or, what Inara assumed was a warning shot, rocked the ship a second later, and they were thrown to the other side of the hallway. Mal kept his arms around her, his eyes locked with hers.

"Too late," Inara whispered.

Mal frowned. "I don't want you to get hurt."

"Are we going to have this argument every time we get into trouble?" Inara asked, tilting her head up at him.

"Yes," Mal muttered. The old Mal would have backed off, taken a few steps away and let her go. But this time, he didn't.

"It won't make a difference," Inara whispered. "I'm not leaving. I'm not running away. Face it, Mal. This time you're stuck with me."

"Any other day, I wouldn't consider that a bad thing," Mal muttered.

Another close warning shot rocked the ship, and Inara clutched Mal's arm for support.

His lips were on hers before Inara knew what was happening. Mal didn't know this wasn't their first kiss, Inara could tell. It was too cautious, a little awkward. Inara put her arms around his neck and kissed him back. He wasn't alone. She wanted to show him. He'd never be alone again.

"Um, Captain," River called. "I'm really sorry, but, um, we kind of need a Captain up here."

Mal backed away slowly, taking a deep breath as he put distance between them. "Go strap in," Mal said, nodding at her. He turned to go back to the bridge.

"Why is it that we have to be in mortal danger for us to make any progress?" Inara asked.

Mal turned to look her in the eye as he answered. "Well, we get out of this, maybe we can work on that." He smiled before quickly going back to the bridge.

Despite another warning shot, Inara found herself smiling.

"Thought you were gonna go strap in," Jayne muttered rushing past her.

"Where are you going?" Inara asked him.

Mal was a step behind him. "We're goin' up top," he said.

"Yeah," Jayne said. "We're gonna go shoot back at the bastards."

"Mal!" Inara called after him. He stopped for a second to look at her. "Be careful, all right?"

"Trust me," he said, "I've got a plan."

Inara grimaced. They were doomed. He and Jayne rushed away, and Inara was alone in the hallway. Zoe came up a few seconds later, heading for the bridge.

"Bumpy ride," Zoe muttered. "Captain wants me on the bridge. Leaves Simon alone in the hold. With the kids."

"I'll go help him," Inara said.

"It ain't the right time, Inara," Zoe said as Inara started moving past her.

"What?"

"We're in a war. It ain't the right time for any of us to get involved."

Inara shook her head. "We're already involved. That's what we do. We get involved. It's human nature to get involved. There's no choice in the matter, Zoe. I would think you would know that."

"Why would I?" Zoe challenged.

Inara straightened and looked her friend in the eye. "Maybe I was mistaken. I'll be in the hold. Helping Simon."

"Good," Zoe said, turning away and marching up to the bridge.

Inara shook her head. Anyone could see Jordan was falling for the woman. The war was just an excuse for Zoe not to get hurt again. But you couldn't help falling in love, and falling in love always came with some pain. Whether you were with the person or if you never even tried. The trick was to make the good moments worth more than the bad. But Inara would have to talk sense into Zoe later. Right now, Simon was trying to keep ten kids from freaking out.

"But why is the Alliance firing on us?" Pisces asked.

"Because they want to kill us," Sagittarius answered. The pretty blond was helping several of the kids brace themselves on makeshift straps on the sides of the hold.

"That ain't true. Iffin it were," Cancer said, "We'd been already shot outta the sky." Inara made a mental note to keep Cancer away from Jayne from now on, or the kid would never learn proper English.

"Okay," Sagittarius said slowly. "They want to _take_ us," she amended.

"That rings true," Cancer said, nodding. "We are theirs."

"Who told you that?" Inara asked her.

"No one. Heard it from River. You took us from them. They're trying to get us back."

"They're not gonna get us - " Gem started, his blue eyes sparkling with fear.

" - If they keep shooting at us," Eye continued, looking from her brother to Inara.

"Right, Inara?" the twins asked together.

Inara looked over at Simon, who was trying to calm Aquarius down. It wasn't working. The kids was on sensory overload. The ship suddenly took a turn again. The low boom of the guns echoed all the way down to the hold, and Inara knew the real battle was beginning. How long would they continue to just graze Serenity when they were shooting back? Inara didn't figure long. Somewhere along the way, the Alliance would lose interest in trying to recover their students. Instead they would just blow both Fireflies out of the sky.

"They're not going to get you at all," Inara said, hoping she sounded confident.

Cancer glanced her way, as if she knew Inara wasn't being entirely truthful.

Then a creepy laughter began echoing over the com stystem. Chills crept up Inara's spine.

"We seeeee you," the voices said.

"What?"

Across the room, Capricorn started screaming her head off, and Aquarius held his hands to his ears, shutting his eyes.

"Not them," Pisces muttered, pleadingly. "Why did it have to be them?"

"Who are they?" Inara asked him. He shook his head.

"The Graces," River answered. "I'm trying to block them. It's not really working."

"We still seeeeee you!" The Graces sang.

"No, you don't!" River yelled.

The hold went silent. Inara didn't know what to think. She looked at Simon. Aquarius had curled himself into a ball on the floor. The other students looked around for a few seconds, as if waiting for someone to tell them what to do. Inara was waiting for the same thing.

"All right," a voice said from the catwalk, "Here's what we're going to do."

Inara turned. Libra was stood in the middle of the catwalk, Aries and Taurus standing at attention on either side.

"We're taking over the ship," Libra finished. "And going home."


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

"All right, Jayne. I think we've lost them. Time to pack it in," the Captain said over the com.

"Yeah, but for how long?" Jayne asked, looking out into the black. It wasn't a very pleasant or intelligent way to travel, strapped to the ship in a space suit. But it was the only way to get to the guns, since Mal hadn't let them tear a hole in the hull. He'd kept saying that Serenity was not a warship, and when the war was over, she was gonna go back to her old life of transportin' things to where they were needed most. Thinking about how close they were to just floating off into space like Jubal Early, Jayne hoped Mal was rethinking his logic.

Even so, Jayne had to admit, it was an excellent view. They were coming in close on the next scorpion. Tjetet. Tutankamen. Tangerinet. One of them. Jayne couldn't remember. Where in the hell did they get these names, anyhow? Why couldn't planet names ever be simple? Like Bob. Okay, maybe not like Bob. But somewhere between Tjetet and Bob was a good planet name that Jayne could actually pronounce.

"Jayne, you forget we're tethered together here? Get a move on. We'll be landing soon."

"I'm comin'," Jayne muttered.

When they finally made it back inside the ship, they heard a noise coming from the hold. They jumped out of the spacesuits and ran for it.

"Jayne!" Kaylee yelled out of the engine room.

Jayne slid to a stop, turned and looked at her.

"River says not to lose your temper. They're just kids. She also wanted to me to remind you that throwing a grenade into the hold would not make this the best day ever," she called from the doorway.

Jayne blinked. "Did she say anything else?" Like what in the sphincter of hell was going on?

Kaylee shook her head.

"Good," Jayne muttered, following Mal.

In the hold, they found what appeared to be an old-fashioned stand-off. The Alphas, also known as Libra, Taurus, and Aries, were holding guns on River, Simon, and Inara, respectively. The other students were still strapped in along the sides of the hold. Simon and Inara, as usual, weren't armed. Only River held her little laser pistol on Libra. Three on one didn't seem very fair. Jayne and Mal would fix that.

Jayne trained his weapon on Taurus, whose brown eyes fixed on him like lasers. Jayne could almost see the kid recalculating. Mal drew his gun on Aries, who immediately took his weapon off of Inara. Good call, kid. Threatening Inara was a good way to get Mal to throw you out the airlock.

"I won't let you hurt my friends," River said, her voice calm, but her pistol aimed at Libra's head. "Stop this now, Libra. Before it's too late."

"You took us away from them. All I want it to go back," Libra said. "Just let us go back."

"I gotta say, I kinda like that plan," Jayne stated. He felt the ship lurch into an orbit. That must be where Zoe was, flying the ship, making sure they didn't all go boom.

"It ain't exactly Plan A, Jayne," Mal said.

"Hell, Cap, I think Plan A went out the window a long time ago, don't you?" Jayne asked.

"It ain't Plan B either," Mal muttered.

"I think we left Plan B on Ion," Jayne retorted.

"Then what the hell gorram plan we on, then?" Mal asked.

"Enough!" Libra yelled at them. She turned back to River. "I want to go home. I will take this ship if I must."

"I can see you haven't made it very far with that goal," Mal told her, nodding at River, standing in Libra's path. Yeah, no one was gonna take River's ship. River shot Jayne a smile. He was glad Mal couldn't hear his thoughts. The Captain would have started complaining that it was really his ship, and then they'd never finish this thing.

Libra glared at Mal, her grey eyes filled with hatred. Before anyone could stop it, Libra quickly moved her gun from River to Mal and pulled the trigger. Inara screamed, Mal stumbled, and River attacked, swiftly knocking the guns from Aries's and Taurus's hands. She grabbed Libra and twisted her gun arm around her back. Then she threw her against the catwalk, so the girl was pinned there, helpless.

"I didn't want this," River growled.

"You think I did, River Tam?" Libra asked.

Jayne picked up a spare gun and kicked the excess out of the way. He held one weapon on each of the other Alphas, who were apparently shocked by the turn of events. Or they were waiting to see who won, Libra or River. Either way, it didn't look like they were going to attack him.

"Mal!" Inara cried, running up to the catwalk.

"I'm okay. Just my leg," Mal said.

"I _could_ have killed him," Libra said.

"The Alliance always gives a warning shot," River said sternly.

Libra nodded.

River shook her head. "Who told you that? Who told you that you are all on the right side? Was it your parents? Did they raise you to be loyal to the Alliance? Where did it come from, Libra?"

Libra's mouth opened and closed again. The kid didn't have an answer.

"You don't know, do you? Don't you want to know where it all came from? These convictions, your strength, Aquarius's senses, Scorpio's talent. Where do they all come from, Libra? Who gave them to you?"

"I do! I want to know!" Pisces called from below. Maybe the kid wasn't so bad, after all.

"Because they did this to you," River yelled. "The Alliance gave you these abilities. And they kidnapped you to do it. They took you away from your families, stole your memories, stole your lives, rewrote your brains for their own purposes."

"No!" Libra screamed. She struggled against the railing, but River held her there.

"Then what's your real name? Where do you come from? When is your birthday?" River asked.

The hold went silent.

"Ask Cancer if I'm lying. The Alliance took you and turned you into weapons. We're trying to set you free. So you can be whoever you want to be. Live simple. Fly away from all the people who would use you."

"River Tam is telling the truth!" Cancer called. "Libra, you were wrong. We can't go back to the Alliance."

Taurus looked at Libra. "We have to trust them, Libra. We have to help them. They're in trouble because of us," he said calmly.

Jayne could see it when the fight went out of Libra. River could see it too, apparently. "I'm going to let you up," she said. "You are going to behave. And you are going to apologize to the Captain while I find us a good place to hide." River let her go. For a minute, Jayne thought Libra might attack again. But the girl just stood there. Silent. The grey eyes had lost their fire.

Jayne nodded at the other two. "No more trouble, _dong ma_?"

Aries nodded. Taurus didn't bother. He went over to Libra and put his hands on her shoulders. She shook him away and stalked back towards her bunk.

Taurus looked back at Jayne. "She just needs some time. She will not contact him again," he said. Jayne felt sorry for the kid. He didn't have to be a mind-reading genius to figure out that he liked the girl, was worried for her. Jayne wondered if that was possible. Apparently it was, because there wasn't really another way to explain it. Taurus was just a little too loyal to Libra. Jayne made a mental note to ask Simon about it later. When he wasn't sewing Mal's leg back together.

A few minutes later, Jayne felt the ship slow and start its descent. They were landing on Isis.

"What is this place?" Jayne asked from the doorway to the bridge as River carefully maneuvered the ship into a hangar.

"Abandoned industrial park," River explained.

"How do you know it's abandoned?" Jayne asked.

River completed the landing cycle and turned to look at him. "Really?" she asked.

"Oh," Jayne muttered. Of course, it was River. "You seem to be feeling a little better?" he asked.

"Fight or Flight is now focused on fight," she said. "Doesn't leave much time for crazy." She got up. "Let's go. Make sure all the students are armed. They've got to be able to defend themselves." Jayne didn't like the sound of that, but he had more important things to worry about, if River really was feeling better.

He stopped her at the doorway.

"Not now, Jayne," she muttered, trying to sidestep around him. He put his hands on her shoulders, reminding himself of Taurus with Libra. He hoped she wouldn't push him away.

"Yes, now," Jayne said. "I have a very important question for you, and I'm through waitin' for an appropriate time. We ain't ever gonna get an appropriate time."

River starred up at him. She knew what was coming. Jayne had been trying to ask her for weeks.

"River – "

"We getting' off this shop or what?" Zoe asked, appearing behind him.

Jayne cursed in Chinese.

"Sorry," Zoe said. "Thought we had something important going on here, with the army coming after us."

"There's a warehouse half a block away. That'll be the fall back point. The kids should wait for us there," River said. "Get Simon, Inara, and Kaylee to make a run for it with them. Tell Kaylee to keep down and be careful."

"I'll," Zoe started slowly, looking from River to Jayne and back, like she'd just now realized they'd been in the middle of something, "do that. And I'll tell the Captain about the warehouse." The she was gone.

Good. Now back to the question.

River ran from the bridge before Jayne knew what was happening. Couldn't she just stand still for one minute? That's all it would take .He followed her down to his bunk, where she started snatching all his weapons from the wall again.

"Marry me," Jayne blurted before he could think and before River could run again. River stopped and looked at him. Jayne took a step forward. "River, will you marry me?" he asked.

"That _is_ a very important question," River said slowly, avoiding his eyes. She looked like she was about to panic. Jayne had seen her panic enough times to know the signs. But she seemed to remember that they didn't have time for crazy. After a deep breath, she said, "If we live through this, I have a very important answer." She moved past him and started back up out of the room. "It won't take the Alliance long to find us. We have to go, Jayne."

Jayne knew she was right, but he stayed in the bunk for a few moments after she'd gone, anyway. Punched a wall. Threw a chair. The usual. Then he decided to go take out his frustration on someone who actually deserved it. Namely, the Alliance.

River was right, it didn't take the Alliance long to find them. Good for the Serenity, there was a lot of cover in the industrial park, which forced the Alliance to land and try to take them on the ground.

"Here's the plan," Mal said, coming up to Jayne as he, Zoe, and River started down a street that was beginning to crawl with Alliance.

"Another plan, Mal?" asked Jayne. This wasn't going to end well. "Plan M, maybe?"

"Get up to those windows and start pickin' them off," Mal said, pointing.

"Mal, I think you'd better do that," Jayne said, firing at a line of Alliance coming at them from the other side of the street. Zoe and River advanced on them. The Alliance didn't stand a chance.

"Why can't you ever just say 'yes, sir'?" Mal yelled over the noise.

"'Cause I ain't a gorram soldier!" Jayne yelled back. He was a mercenary. He took cover on the other side of the narrow street. "Listen, Mal, I can run a might faster than you right now, so you go up to the windows and lay down cover fire." Jayne threw him Vera. Mal looked at the gun, then at Jayne. "I'll keep 'em busy down here."

Mal nodded, then hobbled toward the tall warehouse with the great sniper windows while the rest laid down cover fire.

"Kids make it to the warehouse?" Jayne asked River. The Alliance had found some friends. The reinforcements were pushing the crew back.

"Yes," River said. "And a few of them took out some of these idiots along the way," she added. "And that's why I gave them guns."

"Right. Still think that was a dangerous idea," Jayne muttered, pulling River behind some cover. He pulled out a grenade and threw it.

River smiled at him, shaking her head. "You and your grenades."

"It's part of my brilliant strategy," Jayne said.

"You have a strategy, Jayne?" Zoe asked from across the way.

"Yeah," Jayne muttered, firing a few more rounds at the Alliance. "Don't die."

Zoe shook her head.

"A simply strategy, but a difficult one to stick to," River muttered, regarding the line of Alliance.

"They're like gorram rabbits," Jayne muttered, firing. Where had they all come from?

"Geronimo," River muttered.

"What?" Jayne asked.

"Sam," she said.

Because that explained a lot.

Jayne didn't have time for decoding the River-speak. They were being pushed back again. They found themselves in a large, open square. Not good. There wasn't as much cover here, and if a ship decided to sweep them, they were humped.

"Find cover!" Zoe yelled.

"Great idea!" Jayne yelled back.

The three of them kept a continuous line of fire. Every few seconds, a random Alliance soldier or two would fall, and Jayne knew Mal was up in the warehouse doing his job. But there were too many of them. The Alliance really wanted their kids back, and they had sent an army to get the job done.

Jayne tackled River to the ground as he heard a ship approaching them from above. This was it. They were so humped.

Then Jayne heard screaming. The screaming of the Alliance. He looked up to see the Franken-Fly barreling down towards the Alliance, firing both the guns and sending the Alliance scattering and falling back from whence they came.

"Too narrow, Sam," River whispered from her spot on the ground where Jayne had pinned her.

"What?" Jayne asked.

The sides of the Franken-Fly scraped against the buildings on either side of the street. The noise was deafening. Jayne couldn't see the gunmen. He hoped they'd gotten inside the ship, or they'd be thrown off the back and probably break their necks. Thick, black smoke started pouring out the ship, from the sides, from the engine room, and from somewhere in the front, and it went down in deadly slow motion. Jayne threw himself on top of River again as an explosion rocked the street.

"Bye, bye, Franken-Fly," River whispered beneath him.

Jayne looked back up at the mess of twisted and burning metal. Somewhere in all that was his little brother. He helped River up, readjusted his weapons, and ran back towards the ship to kick some serious Alliance ass. Nobody messed with his little brother. Nobody.

New strategy. Kill all Alliance.


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter Eleven

Sonja was pretty sure the world had gone sideways. Or maybe it was just the room. She tried to take a deep breath. Smoke filled her lungs, and she coughed so hard she curled into a ball. Then there was a stabbing pain in her side. Since there wasn't anything sticking out of her abdomen, Sonja concluded she'd only cracked a few ribs. She didn't need those ribs, anyway. The room was filled with smoke and heat. Somewhere close a fire was trying to get to her. Her eyes stung; her vision was blurry. When she finally stopped coughing, her throat was so sore she doubted she'd be able to talk. She was lying on a wall instead of a floor, her head hurt, and there was an annoying ringing in her ears caused by being too close to an explosion.

That's right. Her ship had burst into flames and exploded.

Sonja was not having a very good day.

"Cobb!" she called through the smoke. She wasn't sure if it came out as much more than a croak. She tried again, standing up. On the wall. The world _had_ gone sideways. "Cobb!" she tried again.

"Here!" This was followed by a coughing fit from the other end of the wall.

Sonja moved towards the sound of his voice, glad that they hadn't had much junk up here, just some tools that Scorpio had left after installing the guns.

"Good call coming back inside," Jordan muttered through his coughs when she got to him.

"That's why they pay me the big bucks," Sonja muttered back. "Or why they would pay me the big bucks, if they'd had any bucks to give. And also if I hadn't quit." They would have been thrown halfway across the planet if they'd still been up top when Sam rammed them into the building. Sorry. _Buildings_. Plural. Idiot. Sonja was going to have to find herself a new pilot. One who could tell when your ship was too big to make it through a tiny street. Was it really too much to ask for in a pilot? Sonja didn't think so. "You all right?"

Jordan gave her a thumbs up, but there was a nice-sized gash in his forehead.

"Get to the bridge," Sonja ordered. "Get Sam and Meg out of this death trap."

"Where are you going?" Jordan asked.

"Engine room. Kuan-Yin was down there," Sonja said, making her way to the ladder. She studied it for a moment. It was going the wrong way. She shook her head and started climbing her way through the ship.

"But you told her to strap in," Jordan said, following her.

"Yeah," Sonja muttered. "That's why I know she was in the engine room."

Jordan looked at her like he was about to say something. She shooed him towards the bridge then turned towards the engine room. She knew what he was going to say. The explosion, the big one, had come from the back of the ship.

As Sonja made her way down the ship, she realized she'd also somehow managed to sprain or break her ankle in the tumbling and the crashing. "Sam's taking flying lessons," she muttered, limping and climbing her way slowly towards Kuan-Yin.

Patches of fire were still burning in the engine room. Sonja went in as quickly as she could manage, looking for Kuan-Yin in the destruction. She yelled the young woman's name.

After a few moments, she heard a whimpering coming from the far end of the engine room. Sonja didn't feel the pain in her ankle anymore as she ran towards the noise. "Kuan-Yin!" she breathed, kneeling down beside her. "Are you all right?"

Kuan-Yin was burned, quite a bit, but looking at the rest of the damage, Sonja was pretty sure it could have been worse. A lot worse.

"Explosion was over there," Kuan-Yin pointed to the other side of the room. "I was already over here. Cover," she muttered groggily. She was crying. Sonja wiped a tear from the younger woman's face. "I'll be okay."

"Can you get up?" Sonja asked.

Kuan-Yin shrugged, winced. Sonja put Kaun-Yin's arms around her neck and swept her up. Sonja had misjudged her own strength, though. She struggled under the weight a moment before setting Kuan-Yin on her own feet.

"I'm okay," Kuan-Yin said, taking a step forward. She faltered, but didn't fall.

"Simon will fix you up," Sonja said, hoping she sounded more confident than what she actually felt. The burns were all over her. They looked bad. Sonja wasn't a doctor, but she figured it was a miracle Kuan-Yin was even able to move with those injuries. "You're amazing, you know that?"

"I do my best," Kuan-Yin breathed. "Just for you."

"How's your head?" Sonja asked.

"Still attached," Kuan-Yin muttered. "How's yours?"

"Likewise," Sonja said.

Slowly but surely they made their way back up the ship. Luckily, a nice, door-sized hole had been blown in the side not far from the engine room, and Sonja was able to help Kuan-Yin out. She set Kaun-Yin down against a building a few yards away and turned to the ship, looking for the others.

She was about to go in when Jordan came out the same hole carrying Sam on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, followed by Meg. The girl looked all right, just a bit shaken. Sam had probably gotten her to go further into the ship to strap in when he'd gotten the ridiculous idea in his head to run the ship down a too-narrow street.

Sonja shook her head. If Sam was alive, she might just have to kill him herself for causing her this much trouble.

Jordan put the pilot down beside Kuan-Yin. Sam was unconscious, but breathing. Sonja honestly didn't know how the idiot was still alive.

"We should get Simon over here," Jordan said.

Sonja nodded, looking from Sam to Kuan-Yin. She looked like she was about to pass out.

A rumbling noise came from the ship. A second later a final explosion went off inside, and the whole thing collapsed the ground in useless heap of metal.

"Oh," Kuan-Yin said sadly, looking at her creation.

"You can build a new one, Kuan-Yin," Sonja said as she started to look around, getting her bearings. She was sure there had been a battle going on out here before they crashed.

A door slammed open behind her, and Sonja jumped. Then winced. Stupid ankle.

Captain Malcolm Reynolds staggered into the street. "What in the sphincter of hell was that?" he asked gruffly.

"What happened to your leg?" Kuan-Yin asked. "And your head?"

"An idiot shot me. Then another idiot flew damn near straight into my nice, cozy sniper spot," Mal pointed up at the building. "Which idiot was that, by the way?"

"The seven-eighths dead one," Sonja muttered, pointing to Sam. "Any idea where your doctor is?"

Mal held up a hand. Then he spoke into his communicator. "Doc, we could use your help. Er," Mal stopped suddenly. "Where are we, exactly?"

"Just tell him to follow the big smoke signal," Jordan muttered, holding his head in his hands. Apparently he had just realized he'd been hurt, too.

"Right. Yeah, I knew you were smart kid. Simon, follow the smoke," Mal muttered into the com. Sonja wondered how hard he'd hit his head. "Hello? Hello! Simon? Doc!" Mal yelled into his com.

"Lose the signal?" Sonja asked.

"Of course I lost the signal!" Mal yelled at the sky.

Sonja shook her head. "This really isn't my day."

She leaned against the wall, wondering how she was going to get her crew out of this. This was, beyond a doubt, the stupidest, most ridiculous situation Sonja had ever gotten herself into. And Sonja was just realizing there really might not be a way out.

"Sir!" Zoe yelled, appearing on the other side of the destroyed ship.

"Zoe!" Mal yelled back, stepping back and leaning against the wall. "We winning?" he asked.

"Sir, that depends on your definition of 'winning,'" she answered. Then she looked at Jordan.

Jordan gave her a lopsided smile. "We have to stop meeting like this," he muttered, gesturing to his head. "I think I should just hire my own medic, wha' do ya think?"

"As much trouble as you get into, Jordan Cobb, that wouldn't be a bad idea," Zoe told him.

Sonja looked from Zoe to Jordan and back. She glanced at Kuan-Yin to see what she thought of this. The young woman's eyes shown with amusement. Sonja sighed and rolled her eyes. When she looked at Mal, he was frowning.

"What's going on out there?" Meg asked, pointing towards the direction Zoe had come from.

"Well," Zoe said, glancing back. "The Browncoats are here," she finished, as if she couldn't quite believe it herself.

"You're kidding," Mal and Jordan said simultaneously.

Zoe shook her head. "They got here about five minutes ago, then started shooting the hell out of the Alliance." She looked at Mal. "Frankly, Sir, I don't know how to feel about it."

"Let them kill each other for a while," Mal suggested, waving his hand at the fray. "Where's my medic?" he asked.

"Stuck in the warehouse," Zoe said. "Where the kids are. Seems both armies have figured out where the prize is."

Kuan-Yin groaned. "So, we have to get to the warehouse, then."

"Without getting killed," Meg muttered. She sat down on the ground. "I'm all for waiting here."

"What about him?" Jordan asked, pointing to Sam.

"The freakin' moron crashed us here!" Meg yelled. Then she kicked Sam's leg.

The freakin' moron came to. "Wha - ?"

"You!" Meg yelled at him, getting back up to yell in his face. "You crashed us!"

"I saved our friends," Sam muttered sleepily. "Am I dead?"

"You oughtta be, doin' a fool thing like that!" Meg yelled back.

Sam looked hurt. "I was just trying to help," he said sadly.

This was pathetic.

"Get up, Sam," Sonja ordered. "We have to go now."

"Nobody's gonna tell me if I'm dead or not?" Sam asked, pulling himself up. "That's rude." He faltered. Jordan grabbed him before he could fall. "Oh, Jordan. I didn't kill you, too, did I?"

"No, Sam," Jordan said patiently. "You couldn't kill me if you tried."

"Oh, good," Sam said groggily.

Sonja helped Kuan-Yin to her feet. "Everybody ready?"

Mal nodded. "Lead the way, Zoe."

Zoe took them around the back of the building Mal had used as a sniper tower, away from the fighting. The best Sonja could tell, they were making a loop to enter the warehouse from the back. "River and Jayne are making their way to the warehouse, too," Zoe told them. "River thinks that's where we'll make our stand."

"They get Kaylee and Inara out of there?" Mal asked.

Sonja looked at Kuan-Yin. She'd like to get the woman far away from the final battle, too.

"River will keep them back," Zoe said confidently. "She won't let anything happen to them, Sir."

Mal nodded, limping along. He didn't seem that confident. Looking at him, Sonja was reminded why they had tried to get him to liberate the students in the first place. Anybody could have tried it. Lesser men would have simply given the Browncoats the students and walked away. Most men would have told them no. It had been a dangerous mission. More than dangerous. Stupid. Insane. Suicide. And right. They'd needed Captain Malcolm Reynolds. The only man crazy enough to think he could pull off the job, and the only man who had the heart to try it. The Captain was stubborn, stupid, and crazy. It had been the perfect combination for the mission. Smith had simply overestimated his ability to con the Captain.

Zoe led them around a corner. "There it is," she said, nodding towards the building.

The blond kid, the one who could have been a super model, stood at the back door, leaning against the doorframe, spinning her rifle, and looking bored. When Sagittarius saw the group approaching, she straightened. "Well, hello," she said.

"Hi," Sam muttered, waving weakly.

"Heard you crashed your ship," Sagittarius said.

Sam nodded. Meg sighed. Sonja kept moving, helping Kuan-Yin along. "We need inside, kid," Sonja said.

"Here, I'll help her," Sagittarius said, taking Kuan-Yin. She looked Sonja up and down. "You look like you've got enough problems."

"I've had a bad day," Sonja muttered. She let Sagittarius lead them into the warehouse. "Where's the doctor?" she asked.

"Upstairs," Sagittarius said, nodding to the right.

"Oh, fantastic," Sonja muttered. The pain in her ankle was only getting worse. She wasn't sure she could hobble up all of those.

"That's a lot of climbing," Sam muttered. "We sure we wanna go up? Maybe Simon could come down?"

"River told us to keep Simon, Kaylee, and Inara upstairs," Sagittarius said. "So, that's what we'll do."

"She didn't say why?" Meg asked.

Sagittarius blinked at her. "You don't ask River Tam why." She turned, swept Kuan-Yin up in her arms, and started climbing the stairs. "Coming?" she called over her shoulder.

Sonja tilted her head up at the girl, wishing she had that kind of strength. If the girl dropped Kuan-Yin, though, she'd kill her.

"Ladies first," Sam said, gesturing to the stairs.

"Jordan, get Groggy here up there first. Y'all will move a lot faster than I will," Sonja said, taking a few steps back. She could see outside now, the empty alleyway. She couldn't even hear the battle going on. Her hearing must not have been back to normal yet.

Jordan nodded and started helping Sam. Meg followed closely.

"Your turn," Mal said.

"Your leg is bleeding," Sonja said.

"Your _head_ is bleeding," Mal retorted.

Sonja put a hand to her scalp. True enough, when she brought it down, blood covered her palm. "So it is," she muttered.

"Gellar!" someone shouted outside.

Sonja looked up. There was Colonel Geming Smith, starring at her from across the alley. His ugly face contorted with rage. For the space of what seemed like an hour, they stood there, starring at each other. Sonja was quite sure they were the only ones left in the whole, sideways world. Then she saw his rifle, pointed straight at her. Sonja blinked, tilted her head, and whispered, "You bastard." He fired. Sonja flew back into the warehouse and landed on her back, the wind knocked out of her. She heard a slam and someone screaming her name. Kuan-Yin. Sonja wished she had gone up the stairs with her.

Oh, yes. Sonja Gellar was having a _very_ bad day.


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

In the distance, far on the other side of the warehouse, Kaylee knew the fighting between the Alliance and the Browncoats raged on. They weren't worrying about the folks inside the warehouse just yet. Kaylee figured both sides were still focused on their bigger problems. Each other. The winner would get a chance at the kids. That's what the two armies were really fighting for. Kaylee tried not to think about that, instead turning her attention to what was in front of her.

Kaylee didn't know what to do, where to stand, how to help. A million and a half things were going on at once. Mal was at the back door with Sagittarius, blocking the way. Outside, Kaylee could hear Smith shouting orders at his men.

"Get her on the table," Simon ordered as Jordan and Zoe made it up the stairs with a very pale Sonja.

Kuan-Yin stood to one side, watching Simon as he began his work. Kaylee stood on the other side, watching Kuan-Yin. There were burns all over Kuan-Yin's face and arms, but she was still standing, still intent on being there for Sonja. Inara tried to usher her away, but Kuan-Yin snatched her arm back and shook her head. Kaylee looked from Kuan-Yin to Sonja and back again.

"Who's that?" Pisces asked, coming out of the back room.

"It's General Gellar," Cancer said. Kaylee shot them a look. They were supposed to stay in the back and keep out of trouble.

"That's not good, is it?" Capricorn whispered, pointing towards the table.

Kaylee tried to shoo them away, but lost interest in whether or not they would actually listen to her as Simon whispered some very choice Chinese.

"Inara, help me. I can't see what I'm doing," Simon said, frustrated.

"That's a lot of blood," Meg murmured. Sam, leaning on her for support, pulled her close and kissed her on the forehead.

"Put pressure right there," Simon told Zoe. "We've got to get this bleeding stopped."

"Kuan-Yin," Sonja called.

"She's fine," Inara said sweetly. "She's just fine. You don't have to worry about a thing."

"Kuan-Yin," Sonja repeated softly. "I'm sorry."

"What for?" Kuan-Yin asked, coming up to the table. "You ain't done nothing."

"Precisely the point," Sonja whispered.

"No, no," Simon said. "Stay with us, Sonja." He had both his hands inside her now. Kaylee looked away before she could get sick. Or start crying. Or both. "Kuan-Yin, keep her talking."

Kuan-Yin shook her head, tears streaming down her face. "What were you supposed to do?" she asked Sonja, stroking her hair gently.

"Besides shoot that bastard when I had the chance?" Sonja asked.

"Besides that," Kuan-Yin said, giving a short laugh. "What did you do wrong? Nothing. You did nothing wrong, Sonja," she said, her voice cracking.

There was something in the way she said Sonja's name that got Kaylee's attention. She looked around the room to see if anyone else had caught it. Jordan was studying the table closely, Meg and Sam were in their own world, the others were concentrating on helping Simon.

The kids, however, had not been silenced by the medical emergency before them. And they'd stayed put, rubber-necking in the doorway.

"Do you think she will die?" Pisces whispered.

Cancer shrugged. "That's a question for a doctor. Which, last I checked, I ain't."

"Who would want to kill her?" Capricorn asked innocently. "I thought she was a nice person. People don't kill nice people."

"She was a nice person," Cancer whispered back, nodding. "Most of the time. Maybe not always," she said. "But everybody's got their days. Good and bad. Nice and not-nice. It's human nature."

The sounds of war, gunfire, screaming, and heavy machinery, vibrated through the warehouse as the two armies outside apparently got a second wind at the same time.

"Is _that_ human nature, too?" Pisces asked.

"Yes," Cancer said, matter-of-fact. Sometimes, she reminded Kaylee of River. When River was being particularly truthsome and blunt. There was a coldness about Cancer. She was honest, but hard. Seemed like that was the basic nature of truth itself. Sure, you wanted it, but it could be hard to take.

"I don't think I like human nature," Capricorn said quietly, pouting, like she was saying she didn't like mushrooms or peas or protein packs. Which she didn't. And that was Capricorn. Persnickety Capricorn. The youngest of them all.

"Not much about it to like, not from the side we've seen," Cancer muttered.

"Which side is that?" Capricorn asked.

"The shitty side," Cancer answered.

"You're saying there's a non-shitty side?" Pisces wanted to know.

Cancer looked at him and blinked. "That has yet to be determined," she said calmly.

Kaylee's eyes started to burn with unreleased tears. She shook her head, deciding to pay more attention to Sonja.

"Please, don't do anything stupid," Kaun-Yin was saying, still stroking Sonja's hair. Again Kaylee wondered if she was picking up on something no one else was.

There were tears on Sonja's face. "I did. I did wrong," she said. "Wrong and so, so stupid. I was stupid. Forgive me, Kuan-Yin. Please say you forgive me."

"Of course I forgive you, you silly cow," Kuan-Yin said, smiling, her face inches from Sonja's.

Sonja smiled. Then started to seize.

"She's crashing," Zoe yelled.

"No!" Kuan-Yin shouted into the woman's face. Inara pulled her away.

Simon shot an annoyed look at no one in particular. His hands moved faster than ever as he tried to revive Sonja. Kaylee didn't know what all he was doing, but he saw him inject her with something, possibly adrenaline. He was covered in blood, all Sonja's. There was so much of it. After desperately working on her mangled body for what seemed like hours, Simon finally straightened, looked down at the hole in Sonja's chest, then at the woman's face. "She's gone," he said sadly.

"No! Don't give up! There has to be something else you can do! You're Simon Tam!" Kuan-Yin shouted.

Simon shook his head. Under his breath he muttered, "Maybe I'm not Simon Tam today."

In the years of flying with Serenity and fighting in the second war, Simon had earned a reputation. They called him a miracle worker, thought he could fix damn near everything, told tales about how he saved limbs and lives every day with nothing but a mediocre med kit and a paper clip. Kaylee knew it wasn't just talk and tall tales when they said Simon was the best doctor with the Browncoats. But Simon wasn't God. Even Simon couldn't save everyone.

And now Kuan-Yin was waking up to that, crying and yelling. She ran up to Simon and started hitting him on the chest repeatedly while Simon just stood there and took it.

Jordan took a few steps forward and took Kaun-Yin in his great, big arms, forcing her into his chest. She fought him for a minute, too, but quickly ran out of steam and began sobbing against him.

Simon backed away, upset. He threw off his gloves. Kaylee put a hand on his shoulder. He'd done everything he could. She ran a hand through his hair. He looked at her and gave her a sad, tiny smile. It would be all right. She didn't know how, yet, exactly. But she knew it would be. That's what she tried to tell her husband, with just her eyes. He took her hand and kissed it before letting go and getting back to work.

"We should take a look at your burns," he said slowly to Kuan-Yin, reaching out to her.

"Don't touch me!" she yelled, backing away.

"Let me help you, Kuan-Yin," Inara said, holding out her hand.

Kuan-Yin looked from Simon to Inara and nodded. She took her hand and let Inara lead her away. Kaylee was sure if anyone could help the girl now, it was Inara.

"What about you, Jordan? Need me to look at that?" Simon asked, pointing at the gash on his head.

Jordan shook his head. "Take more than a crashing ship to get through this thick skull," he said.

"Must be a family trait," Zoe muttered.

Jordan smiled weakly at her.

Kaylee blinked and looked from one to the other. Zoe caught her looking and glared at her. Well, it wasn't like they weren't out in the open, flirtin' away. Nothin' wrong with it, neither. Well, except the timing might have been a little off, considering Sonja. But it was about time Zoe found herself a fella. Not that Kaylee didn't miss Wash. She just hated seeing Zoe alone and sad. Maybe Jordan could help with that. Kaylee found it hard to suppress a smile, but to avoid another death glare from Zoe, she did it.

"That one, though," Jordan said, gesturing towards Sam, still hanging onto Meg for dear life. Kaylee had nearly forgotten about him. "Has probably been dropped on the head one too many times now."

"Hey," Sam muttered, pointing at Jordan. "I resemble that remark." He blinked. "Wait. I don't think I said that right. Megs?"

"You're an idiot," Meg muttered under her breath, her eyes still full of tears.

"Okay," Simon said. "Come on, Sam, let's see how bad that concussion is."

"Oh, I've had a concussion before," Sam said as Meg helped him over to a chair, well away from the table. "Means I can't go to sleep."

"Right," Simon said, flashing a light in Sam's eyes.

Sam blinked rapidly. "Owe," he muttered.

"We should try to get you a head scan," Simon said. He had that adorable worried expression on his face. He wore the same face whenever they talked about the baby.

"Yeah, I'll just go downstairs and get on that," Sam stated. Meg rolled her eyes.

"When this is over," Simon added.

"Right," Sam said, nodding. "When this is over." He looked at Sonja's body lying on the table.

Suddenly Capricorn and Cancer stepped forward with a couple of blankets. Pisces trailed behind with a bottle of water, which he handed to Sam.

"Uh," Sam said, looking quizzically at the parade of teenagers.

"He means 'thank you,'" Meg said.

"Yeah," Sam said, nodding.

Capricorn brought a blanket to the table and covered Sonja.

"She's not there anymore, is she?" Capricorn asked, her young, hazel eyes wide and sad. And confused.

"No," Cancer said, covering Sonja's head. "She's not. She's gone."

"Where'd she go?" Capricorn asked.

"Where we all will," Cancer answered. "Into the black."

Silence fell, not only in their little room, but everywhere. The guns, the shouting, the machinery had all stopped. Apparently, someone or another had won. And now, the winners were coming for their prize.


	13. Chapter 13

**Author's Note: **I just wanted to thank everyone for reading and commenting on my stories! I'm always thrilled to get a response, and I hope you enjoy the last chapter of Moonbrains 3.

~ Isis

* * *

><p>Chapter Thirteen<p>

The music stopped. River didn't like it when the music stopped.

"Libra!" River yelled across the room. Their group had spread themselves wide to cover the west doors.

The young woman lowered her weapon slightly and looked over at her, studying her. Lately River had been getting a strange reading from Libra. That was, there was actually a reading. The girl was starting to think for herself again. River reminded herself to tell Simon later. If there was a later.

"Get the other students and get out of here!" River yelled.

"What's goin' on?" Jayne asked over the radio. He was up in the rafters. So she could point and he could shoot.

"They're coming," River said into her communicator. River could almost see Jayne roll his eyes. He wanted to know why she could never just say who was coming. Why did she always have to go slightly helpless when they needed her most? "I'm not going helpless," River breathed, annoyed. And this was the man who wanted to marry her. Fantastic. "It's the Graces," she said sharply.

"Then you'll need our help!" Libra yelled. Her grey eyes were darting back and forth from River to the door. Her loyalties were beginning to split. Who needed her more? The students or River Tam?

"First and last time that gorram Alpha's gonna offer her help," Jayne whispered through the radio.

"They don't have radios, Jayne," River muttered patiently. Ish.

"Yeah, but where's that Aquarius kid? He don't need no radio."

"He's over with the others. Hiding in a closet, probably," River answered.

"Your orders, Liibra?" Taurus asked.

"Yooo-whooo! Oh yooo-whooo!" an eerie set of voices called. "We're coming for our friends. Send them back to us now, and we'll let you live," they sang out loudly.

"Is it me, or are they really creepy?" Aries asked. Aries still had trouble with words like creepy. And shiny. And basically everything Jayne said. But he was getting better.

"They are very creepy," Taurus agreed.

"Libra, please, if you just listen to me once in your life, listen to me now and – "

"No. We will help you, River Tam," Libra said, standing up straighter. Every instinct of the girl's was telling her to run, but the girl was just too stubborn to give into it. "Like you helped us. Zodiacs at the ready! Be prepared to fire!"

Virgo and Aries stood side by side, assault rifles already at the ready. They liked shooting things. Virgo was especially good at it.

Taurus stood by Libra's side. There was a lot of static in Taurus's mind, but surprisingly, there was actually something beneath. Whatever it was gave River hope.

Scorpio and Leo were still fiddling with different pieces of weapons. They had a nice pyramid of devices. River had no idea what any of them did. Knowing those two, they'd come in handy.

"You ready to cover us, sweetie?" River asked into the radio.

"Just think of me as your guardian angel," Jayne answered.

"Captain, we're about to have a party on our side of the warehouse. Care to join?" River asked through her com.

"Gee, River, it's mighty fine of you to ask us, but me, Sagittarius, and the twins are a little busy with our own little shindig on this side," Mal answered. There was an angry twinge in his voice. Wrath.

River tried to take deep breaths as she processed what had happened while she wasn't there.

"River?"

"I'm all right, Jayne," she muttered. "Get ready to fire," she said to the others. "And don't let them get to you."

"We've been freakin' programmed," Libra muttered. "Pretty sure we can't be gotten to."

River looked at her. And blinked. She would have said something to her, maybe about how she was surprised that Libra could admit it. None of the students had ever let on before that they really understood what had been done to them. But before River could have her moment with Libra, the doors exploded.

Heat and light flew into the room, followed by thick smoke. As it cleared, the Graces emerged, like ghosts. They had no weapons. But then, River supposed, they didn't need weapons to kill you.

"We will be taking back what is ours," the Graces said together. This time, their lips did, in fact, move.

"What are you?" Scorpio asked in awe. He looked like a kid who'd just seen an ice planet for the first time.

"We are the Graces. You will come with us now. "

"You are from the Alliance?" Taurus asked.

"Yes," the Graces answered.

"Then shut the hell up," Taurus said, firing.

It was just like before. The Graces dodged every bullet. They sprang out of the way like they were made of nothing. River tried to study them more closely, but she still couldn't get a read on them. They weren't like the students. It was like they weren't even human.

While River was contemplating this, Virgo was caught by a stray bullet. It caught her in the shoulder, sending her to the ground.

"Stop firing!" River yelled. "It's pointless!"

"That it is, River Tam, because you cannot defeat us," the Graces said.

"Hey, Graces?" Leo asked.

The girls turned to him. Probably a mistake on their part. A mistake a human would have seen a mile away.

"Catch."

Leo threw one of the devices at them. Instead of dodging it, one of the Graces caught it in her hand. Electricity charged through the device and into her body. She convulsed and fell to her knees.

Then something _really_ creepy happened.

The Grace's skin started to melt off, revealing a metal skeleton. Finally, she fell into the ground face-first. The two remaining Graces watched their sister perish with cold, unfeeling faces.

Of course.

"I told you!" Jayne yelled, and River almost jumped out of her skin. "Bat shit crazy freakin' robots!" He yelled triumphantly.

River rolled her eyes. There'd be no living with him after this.

"Now you've made us angry," the two Graces said.

"Can't make a robot angry," Virgo muttered through clenched teeth.

"That's why they can dodge bullets, they calculate the trajectory and move faster than any human being could to get out of the way," Scorpio said, mouth dropping open.

The Graces narrowed their eyes at them. As one, they both raised their right hands. Their palms opened up to reveal some of the mechanics underneath. There was a strange squealing sound, like a …

Like a laser cannon warming up.

Scorpio's eyes grew even wider in delight. "Oh, wow!" he said. One didn't have to be a mind-reading genius to know that he would have loved to tinker with the Graces.

"Get down!" Libra yelled.

Leo slammed Scorpio into the ground as the Graces began firing.

"That's a nice trick they've got up their sleeves."

"Just shoot them, Jayne. They're preoccupied."

"They're freakin' robots. I don't think they can get preoccupied," Jayne muttered back, but he started firing.

A bullet caught one Grace in the head, the other in the chest. But they didn't go down. Instead, they raised their hands and shot at the rafters.

"Jayne!" River screamed as a blast hit where Jayne had been seconds before. She closed her eyes and listened. Yes. He was okay. Winded. Stupid bat shit crazy robot women. He'd always hated fembots.

"How do we stop them?" Libra yelled.

"I don't know!" River yelled back.

"I wasn't talking to you, River Tam!" Libra retorted.

River was taken aback. The Graces turned to her. She glared at them. No way was she being taken down by a couple of robots. She raised her laser pistol as they raised their hands. "Oh, sisters, are you messing with the wrong Moonbrain."

Before the Graces could fire, there was another charging sound. Then a sort of whoosh. Then the Graces collapsed to the floor. River blinked at them.

"What was that?" Virgo asked, getting up. Aries helped her.

"That was wicked," Leo said, nodding decisively.

"Electromagnetic pulse," Scorpio said proudly, holding up an odd, pyramid-shaped contraption.

River blinked at him.

Scorpio looked sheepishly from the device and back to River. "I would have used it sooner, but, well, who knew they were robots?"

"I did!" Jayne yelled, coming forward. He limped slightly, but he would be okay. River ran towards him and threw her arms around him. He was wondering about that answer now.

"Come on," River said, backing away quickly. "We have to go help Mal."

They found Mal trying, and kind of failing, to defend the East side door. "'Bout gorram time you showed up!"

River decided to ignore him.

Gem and Eye made a good team, shooting Browncoats left and right. River was sure they weren't even really thinking about what they were doing. They just saw a bad person trying to hurt them, and they reacted.

Jordan and Zoe were also there, thinking hard about Sonja Gellar, and shooting for their lives.

Sagittarius, of course, was holding her own, though there was a gash in her leg that River didn't like, and another one on her face.

A grenade went off by the doorway, throwing them all back a few feet. River blinked rapidly, trying to regain control. Mal was screaming at her. She didn't hear him. Not properly. He wanted her to get the kids out of here.

Jayne pushed at her, nodding towards the stairs. The rest of the crew were running towards them. Smoke followed them down the stairs, and River knew that part of the building was gone. River chanced a look at Libra.

She'd done a headcount. The explosion has taken Aquarius. And it had taken Capricorn.

Libra's eyes were doing the darting thing again. The Alpha female couldn't decide whether to cut and run or stay and fight. Libra would be taking a page out of the Captain's book. The page marked "wrath."

The smoke began to clear from the room. There was a gaping hole in the wall where the doorway used to be. Smith stood in the center of this new doorway with a rocket launcher in his hands.

"Weapons down, or I'll fire this thing again. This time, right at the rest of you."

He was surrounded by fifty more men. What, had he cleaned out the Khonsu City base just to get a chance at these kids? Why, yes. Yes, he did.

"You really are a bastard, you know that?" River asked Smith.

"Of course I know that," Smith answered, smiling.

River tried to think clearly. What would happen if she just shot him? Laser pistol. Laser. Electronic. EMP. Gorramit. The damn thing wouldn't work.

"One last chance, River. Give up and give me back my weapons," Smith ordered.

River could feel Libra's grey eyes on her. "No," River said, shaking her head. She'd worked too hard getting them to trust her, getting them this far, to give up now.

Smith sighed. "Oh, well, I'd been wanting to use this anyway." He pulled out a small electronic device.

Scorpio muttered some choice Chinese. River's heart started beating more rapidly as she realized what he was planning.

"This is the Fail Safe. My friend Dr. Williams gave it to me."

"No, he didn't," Cancer said, her voice shaking.

"Do you know the point of the Fail Safe, River?" Smith asked, ignoring the child.

"You give them an order that they have to follow, or all the Alliance programming is erased," River pulled from inside his head.

Smith pressed the button on the side of the device, emitting a noise much like the device the Blue-Hands had used. But this wasn't meant to kill them. It was just meant to get the Zodiacs' attention.

"Students, kill River Tam," Smith said clearly and calmly, smiling wide.

There was silence. River tried to breathe. The students, the eleven that were left, surrounded her, guns raised. But there they stopped.

No, there Libra stopped. River spun to face the girl with the grey eyes. She was crying. River blinked, back her own tears. Libra's hand was shaking.

"No," Libra growled. And it was a like a switch was flipped in the girl's head.

"What?" Smith asked angrily.

"No!" Libra yelled back. She swept her gun towards Smith and fired. The Colonel went down. His men looked around them in shock, a couple of them covered in pieces of Smith's skull.

The other students slowly lowered their weapons, shaking their heads.

"What was that?" Mal asked.

"The Alliance got it all wrong," Cancer explained, smiling. "Again."

River looked around her at the students. Was the programming all gone, or dormant, or was there something else at work here? She couldn't tell yet.

"That's shiny," Mal muttered. He looked at the Browncoats. "You idiots ready to surrender?"

Smith's men nodded and dropped their guns.

River listened for a few moments as the others began to regroup, then laughed.

"I'm not the only one with a severe head injury, am I?" Sam asked, leaning heavily between Simon and Meg.

River knew she should explain, but she just couldn't stop laughing.

"River what are you laughing at?" Inara asked.

"The music started again," River said. "The Alliance is gone. Ran away after we destroyed their bat shit crazy freakin' robots."

Libra started laughing with her. "We're free!" she exclaimed throwing her arms out wide. She looked around her at the other students and repeated, this time in a whisper, "We're free."

Two days later, Libra and River sat in the kitchen, safely back on Serenity. They were still parked on Isis, getting their bearings. Burying their dead. Patching up their wounded. Keeping Scorpio away from all the left-over explosives.

"You're sure you want to do this?" River asked her for the third time.

Libra nodded. "I want to help. I want to help end this." She paused, looked away, then back at River, her grey eyes determined. "I want to make sure they can never do it again."

"What about the others?" River asked.

"I think Aries and Taurus will want to fight. And Virgo and Sagittarius, too." She nodded. "They'll join the real Browncoats against the Alliance."

River shook her head. "This isn't what I wanted for you."

"I'm choosing this. You wanted me to have a choice, right?"

River smiled. "I did." She sighed. "Okay, I'll tell the Captain." She rose.

Libra jumped up from her seat beside River and embraced her. It was odd being hugged by Libra. Surprisingly warm and affectionate. "Thank you, River."

"You're welcome, Libra," River said, squeezing her back.

"You are not going to believe this one," Jayne said, sliding down into the room later that night. River sat on his bed and smiled. She already believed it, but she waited for him to say it. It would be so much funnier when he actually said it. "Cancer wants me to teach her how to be a mercenary."

River laughed. "What did you say?" she asked.

"Well, I taught her some Chinese," Jayne answered, like this was the natural first step in any career path in Cancer's future. Which, it actually was.

River watched as Jayne pulled off his dirty shirt. "Serenity back to normal?" she asked.

"No more guns on this boat," Jayne said. "Cannon woulda come in handy, though." He sat down next to River. "Everything can go back to the way it was."

"We got clear," River whispered, leaning into him. "I didn't think we would."

"That why you didn't answer me?" Jayne asked.

River listened to his heart beating for a few moments, thinking to herself that it was the most beautiful sound in the world.

"I didn't want us to be like Mal and Inara. Only making progress when in peril."

"They're making more 'n progress now," Jayne commented dryly. "And, look, no peril."

River didn't care at the moment what Mal and Inara were making right now.

"Ask me again, Jayne," she said, taking a deep breath. She couldn't say what Jayne smelled like. It was just Jayne. Eau de Jayne. Wouldn't sell a bottle, but River loved it.

"River, will you – "

River snapped upright and jumped on his lap, kissing him.

"Marry me?" Jayne finished between kisses.

"Yes," River answered, smiling. Jayne let out a whoop. He hadn't really known what she was going to say. Really? River laughed. What else was she going to say?

And everyone thought she was the moonbrain in this relationship.

"This," Jayne whispered, pulling River close to him. "Is about to get interesting."

"Shiny," River whispered back.


End file.
